Meeting Provides Respite From Capitol Hill Rancor

The partisan rancor that has permeated Capitol Hill over Benghazi, the IRS, and other issues was left at the door of the hearing room in which the Senate Commerce Committee considered the nomination of Charlotte, NC, Mayor Anthony Foxx (pictured) to become the next Secretary of Transportation.

The members of the committee warmly received Foxx, while voicing concerns about funding for NextGen along with other transportation issues. "You have a huge job ahead of you," said committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). "The challenges are many and the solutions are hard."

Senator John Thune (R-SC), the committee's senior Republican, warned that Congress would not be able to continue to borrow from the general fund to pay for highways. The Kansas City Star reports that Foxx said he would look to state and local governments for "ideas." He said that public-private partnerships and infrastructure banks could bring "billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines" into the funding mix, but even that would not be enough to fund all of the nation's transportation needs.

Foxx said that the country needs a "long-term solution" to its transportation issues.

Air Transport World reports that Foxx called the implementation of NextGen an "exciting opportunity" that enjoys "broad support" while acknowledging challenges in getting the program fully funded. “NextGen gives us an opportunity to save our air carriers millions of dollars in fuel,” he said. “If we’re able to obtain those levels of saving, that goes to the bottom line of the carriers.”

His nomination is expected to be quickly moved forward by the committee, and there is little opposition expected in the full Senate.

FMI: http://commerce.senate.gov, www.dot.gov