New Public-Private Coalition Will Strive to Transform U.S. Transportation Policy in 2009

June 3, 2008

On Thursday, June 5, an unprecedented alliance of state government, finance, academic and private industry leaders will come together for the first time to announce the formation of a new coalition aimed at transforming U.S. transportation policy in 2009.

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt; Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey of HNTB Corporation, former Commander-In-Chief of the U.S. Southern Forces Command and Cabinet-level director of the White House Drug "Czar" Policy Office; Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes; and Dr. Joseph M. Giglio, Senior Academic Specialist and Executive Professor of General Management at Northeastern University in Boston; will be among the featured speakers at the newly-formed Transportation Transformation Group's (T2) kick off news conference scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. in the National Press Club's Zenger Room, 529 14th St., N.W.

The new coalition will also release the results of a major nationwide poll on the current state of transportation in America. The poll, conducted by RT Strategies of Washington, D.C., measures American's attitudes about transportation in their local communities and gauges public opinion on traffic congestion solutions.

Next year the U.S. Highway Trust Fund is expected to go bankrupt. Members of T2 believe America needs to move beyond the primary focus of past transportation policy debates -- the federal motor fuel tax increases and the fight among donor-donee states -- toward a more long-term, goal-based vision for the future of transportation.

T2 is represented by 20 charter members from across the nation, including Texas and Florida -- two of the nation's most populous states -- as well as Indiana and Utah, known innovators in transportation planning strategies.