Free Republic

After all the pleading and partisan accusations over funding the Federal Aviation Administration, Democratic lawmakers and Obama officials found the answer to ending a two-week shutdown of the agency literally right under their noses. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is sending a letter Thursday, saying a bill that the GOP-led House passed extending the FAA's operating authority through mid-September gives him the power to waive a provision Democrats opposed that cuts $16.5 million in air service subsides to rural communities.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood turned loose $77 million in federal tax dollars to help build the much-contested SunRail commuter train during a sun-baked ceremony Monday near one of the system's future depots. LaHood signed a fake document before a crowd of more than 300 people. But the stroke of the pen that counted occurred in an air-conditioned tent a few moments later. That opened the way for the first 31 miles of the $1.2 billion train to be up and running by May 2014. "When you get your act together, unbelievable things can happen. … And look what's happening:...

(CNSNews.com) -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was adamant in telling CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the Obama administration does not favor tracking and taxing Americans for every mile they drive--a so-called Vehicular Miles Traveled (VMT) tax. LaHood had personally suggested that the administration look at a VMT early in his tenure at the Transportation Department and it had recently been reported that the administration was considering such a tax. In a Feb. 20, 2009 interview with the Associated Press LaHood said, "We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood unveiled new fuel-economy window stickers for cars and trucks, saying "we're not just sitting around waiting for high gasoline prices to come down." His ride of choice to the unveiling: This 12-mpg Chevy Suburban SUV.

Of course it's payback that Wisconsin got snubbed when the Obama administration divvied up $2 billion in train booty. Wisconsin said no to the administration's grander, gauzier rail dreams, embarrassing the president, so of course Wisconsin gets nothing now. This is how things work. It should surprise no one.Unless, that is, you'd mistakenly thought you'd voted for change in how the country does politics.Sorry: Politics is as it ever was, which is why federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was passing out $2 billion this week. It was money Florida didn't want to start a rail line it couldn't afford. Its...

President Obama took Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood golfing today -- message received: LaHood is safe in his job -- and capped an eventful week with dinner out. From the pool report: "POTUS and FLOTUS emerged from the south portico at 7.52 p.m., and the (motorcade) traveled in three minutes to 12th and F, N.W, where the First Couple entered Tosca, an Italian restaurant. FLOTUS is wearing a dark-leather jacket." Tosca. Hm. Is this a Mother's Day treat, a celebration, an effort to mellow and unwind after an eventful week? The POTUS gave no indication. UPDATE: The President and the First...

At Washington Reagan National Airport in late March, a sleeping controller failed to respond to two airliners seeking to land shortly after midnight. The resulting publicity broke the silence on a long festering problem between the FAA and the air controllers’ union MATCA. And that is there has been a culture of sleeping on the job. It is banned by long existent regulations, but ignored by the controllers especially on the midnight shift. This is now the battle for control of the “shop floor.”... "It has been an open secret in the FAA dating to at least the early 1990s...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP/WBTV) - North Carolina transportation officials say they've reached an agreement that will allow them to obtain $461 million in federal grants to improve train service. The agreement will allow faster and more frequent passenger service between Charlotte and Raleigh. State transportation secretary Gene Conti says the agency will seek bids for contracts for tracks, bridges and trains. Officials say the new service would cut travel time from Charlotte to Raleigh to less than three hours, even with seven stops along the way. However, the ride will only be 13 minutes faster. The project is expected to create...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is meeting with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle to discuss the city's planned $5.5 billion commuter rail line. LaHood, Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and other officials were to join Carlisle at a briefing Wednesday on the rail transit project. LaHood oversees the Federal Transit Administration, which has pledged to sign an agreement providing at least $1.5 billion for the rail. LaHood plans to tour the port and talk with people about how to "rev up this economy in Hawaii." This is LaHood's first visit to the state since being appointed by President Barack Obama....

President Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2012 is an unabashed attempt to grow government and add $1 trillion to the national debt. While a detailed review of the flaws in the President’s budget is beyond the scope of this paper,[1] one of the budget’s more fiscally irresponsible components is the proposal to increase surface “transportation” spending by more than 84 percent (from $58 billion to $107 billion) over FY 2010 spending levels.[2]

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) took Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to task Thursday for the Obama administration’s call for a massive increase in transportation spending. Given the record deficit this year, Sessions said he was surprised to see Obama’s 2012 budget call for an 11 percent spending increase and a 9.5 percent increase for the Education and Energy departments, respectively. But, he said, “I was flabbergasted to see Transportation wants 62 percent increase in spending.” Sessions noted, ahead of LaHood’s testimony on the request, that the Obama budget calls for an unspecified new tax to raise $435...

The US government may require cars to include scrambling tech that would disable mobile-phone use by drivers, and perhaps passengers. "I think it will be done," US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said on Wednesday morning, according to The Daily Caller. "I think the technology is there and I think you're going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones." LaHood is on a self-described "rampage" against distracted driving, and if making it impossible to use a mobile phone while in a car can save lives, he's all for it — although, according to TDC,...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he told his daughter to buy a Japanese car--a Toyota Sienna--and that she did so. LaHood's comment came as he announced the results of a 10-month long Department of Transportation study that was undertaken to determine whether electronic systems could have been responsible for reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The study determined that this was not the case. LaHood's statement that

Why not? The federal budget is now like a teetering Jenga tower that stretches into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. There’s no question that it’s going to topple pretty soon, so in the meantime, why not have fun and see how many more pieces we can stick on there before it does? Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced an ambitious $53 billion program to build new high-speed rail networks and make existing ones faster over the next six years.Biden, who estimated he has ridden Amtrak between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Delaware, some 7,900 times, made a strong pitch...

The U.S. government on Friday proposed prohibiting commercial truck and bus drivers from using cellphones while behind the wheel. The Transportation Department rule would affect approximately 4 million drivers, who are already banned by the government from texting while working

The incoming Republican governors of Wisconsin and Ohio rejected $1.2 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail — leading to a windfall for Illinois. The state is getting $42.3 million in additional high-speed rail money, federal officials announced Thursday. That is in addition to the $1.2 billion in funding the state received in January to build high-speed rail between Chicago and St. Louis. The improvements will allow trains to increase their speed to 110 mph — and cut travel times from five hours to just over three hours. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood redistributed the money from those two states...

The Obama administration will take away high-speed-rail stimulus money originally awarded to Wisconsin and Ohio after their incoming Republican governors indicated that they wouldn’t continue with the projects.

Citing the “dangerous distraction” that cell phones pose to motor vehicle drivers, US Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is proposing that a means of disabling cell phones from operating while they are in vehicles be installed in all vehicles. “It’s bad enough that we so readily allow nonprofessional drivers to operate vehicles on our roads,” LaHood said. “The vast majority of them aren’t really competent to drive. They should be riding public transit. But when you allow cell phone conversations to driving it’s a deadly combination.” LaHood observed that “there’s a lot of technology out there that can disable...

Last week’s reversal on offshore oil drilling by Barack Obama didn’t go over well with likely US voters, according to a new Rasmussen survey. Sixty percent support offshore drilling in principle, and 48% oppose the ban directly, with only 35% supporting Obama’s reversal. A majority expect economic damage and higher fuel prices as a result: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the new seven-year ban will increase gas prices, while just 11% think it will make gas prices go down. Twenty-five percent (25%) expect the ban to have no impact on...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has swiftly become a superstar in the political firmament. His stands for the taxpayers and against wasteful government spending have exhibited the type of tough decision-making people have been waiting for among our politicians; his forceful stands against the public unions and the stranglehold they have over our lives and futures have become YouTube hits. He is the real Governator, not like that pretender in California. Governor Christie has been touted as a future GOP candidate for the presidency. But Barack Obama knows of only one kind of preemptive war: against those who threaten his...