U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Public Affairs Washington, D.C. www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm News

U.S. Department of Transportation Under Secretary for Policy Briefs American Association of Port Authorities and the Intermodal Association of North America on SAFETEA

NEW ORLEANS -- In New Orleans, LA, today, Jeffrey Shane, Under Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, briefed the American Association of Port Authorities and the Intermodal Association of North America on major provisions in the Bush Administration’s surface transportation reauthorization proposal. Secretary Mineta launched this major legislative initiative on Wednesday in Washington, DC.

The "Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003" (SAFETEA), a six-year $247 billion proposal, serves as the largest surface and public transportation investment in U.S. history. The Department’s number one priority for the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century (TEA-21) is saving lives.

Under Secretary Shane also highlighted the intermodal nature of SAFETEA. "I am proud to say that addressing bottlenecks in freight and goods movement is a high priority for this Administration and our proposal will include several provisions designed to accomplish this."

Under Secretary Shane added, "Our proposal calls for states to set aside at least 2 percent of their National Highway System (NHS) funding to ensure that critical connectors to ports and other intermodal facilities are improved and adequately maintained. The Administration is also proposing to expand innovative finance tools to leverage more federal dollars and encourage private sector participation in the construction of intermodal facilities, including expanding private activity bonds to cover highways and surface freight transfer facilities, and lowering the threshold and expanding eligibility under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998 (TIFIA) to include private freight rail projects."

Under Secretary Shane concluded, "We recognize the importance of freight and goods movement to our economy and want to work with you to ensure that federal programs meet your needs."

If enacted, SAFETEA will consolidate and expand federal safety programs, create jobs, sustain economic growth, reduce congestion, minimize project delays, empower local decision makers by increasing funding flexibility, increase environmental stewardship and protections, and increase transit efficiency for a more seamless transportation network.

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