Transportation Secretary-designate Pete Buttigieg called for U.S. investment in infrastructure during a confirmation hearing before senators on Thursday. Concerns immediately arose over how it would be paid for.
Senators asked the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, if he supports raising the federal gas tax to pay for an infrastructure package. “All options need to be on the table,” he responded, including a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax. He noted that the gas tax hasn't been raised since 1993 and has not been tied to inflation. With VMT, there are also privacy considerations, he added.
“Transportation infrastructure investment around here has always been an area for bipartisan cooperation,” said Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota. “The other thing that enjoys bipartisan popularity around here is not paying for it. We continue to just put it on the debt and hand the bill to our kids and grandkids.”
The Trump administration pushed for infrastructure improvements, but the effort fizzled. Meanwhile, the nation is facing the reauthorization of the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act), which expires in September. That expiratioWeb Adminn deadline “presents a key moment for action on [infrastructure] priorities,” Buttigieg wrote in a questionnaire submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that held his confirmation hearing.
“The transportation sector in our nation has been devastated economically and will need support from the American public,” Buttigieg said in the questionnaire. The Department of Transportation and Congress and the White House must “develop and deliver bold, transformative infrastructure plans to create jobs and strengthen our country’s economic competitiveness,” he added.
Federal investment in infrastructure could take many forms and has been the subject of keen interest to city and state officials as well as technology companies supporting the smart city movement and autonomous vehicles (AVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) . President Biden has advocated advancing (EV) technology, specifically calling for 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide.
On AVs, Buttigieg said the technology “holds the potential to be transformative and I think in many ways policy has not kept up.” Hyperloop technology also came up during the hearing, including the Virgin Hyperloop certification center in West Virginia, but Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, worried it is “falling between different regulatory environments.”
Buttigieg responded, “Industry is advancing and we have to make sure the regulatory framework keeps up, both that it keeps up in terms of securing our safety and other goals, and that it keeps up in terms of making sure that these new technologies can flourish in a safe way.”
Emerging transportation technologies did receive some attention during the Trump administration when US DOT headed by Secretary Elaine Chao created the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology Council (NETT). US DOT also has created AV guidelines in an AV 4.0 framework while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an AV test tracking tool for public transparency.
Buttigieg also made an appeal for safe streets. “It’s very important that we recognize the importance of roadways where pedestrian, bicycles, vehicles, any other mode, can coexist peacefully,” he said. A coalition of more than 80 traffic safety groups including AAA urged President Biden on Jan. 20 to commit to reduce roadway fatalities to zero by 2050. Nearly 40,000 people die each year as a result of crashes.
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