NASHTU Notes
NASHTU Conference Set for 2024 – Save the Date
The 2024 NASHTU Conference will be held June 3 through 5, 2024 at the Hilton Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington D.C. Please save the dates!
The NASHTU Conference is an excellent opportunity for transportation unions to come together and strategize about how best to serve our members and deliver safe, cost-effective transportation projects for taxpayers. It also provides important access to transportation leaders and key Members of Congress. Past conferences included the congressional leaders of both Senate and House committees with jurisdiction over transportation and infrastructure and key transportation and labor officials from AASHTO, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, FHWA, Center for American Progress, and many other transportation stakeholder organizations.
NASHTU has secured a special room rate at the Hilton Capitol Hill Hotel (525 New Jersey Avenue, NW) of $309 per night (single/double occupancy). The hotel will also honor the special room rate for up to two days prior to and after the conference, subject to hotel availability. Advance reservations can be made by calling the hotel at 202/628-2100. Please be sure to mention the NASHTU Conference when booking your accommodations.
As always, if you have suggestions for speakers, panels, or interesting subjects for the conference, please let us know. We look forward to seeing you next June at the 2024 NASHTU Conference!
Buttigieg Touts Results of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Recently, U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg hailed some of the achievements of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – also known as the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act (IIJA) – which is nearing its second anniversary of enactment. Billed as a “once in a generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure,” the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dedicated $1.2 trillion to infrastructure projects across multiple sectors. It was signed into law by President Joe Biden on November 15, 2021.
Secretary Buttigieg said at a White House press conference that there are 31,000 construction projects across the country currently receiving funding from the law, ranging from simple infrastructure repairs to major transit transformations, according to an article in Spectrum News NY1.
Buttigieg touted specific accomplishments of the law including the recent completion of the Lehigh Valley Airport in Pennsylvania, saying it was “the first time I was able to be at a ribbon cutting on a project that benefited from those dollars and the president’s infrastructure plan.”
Buttigieg also cited California, which is currently receiving federal funding from the law to expand its metro system in Southern California and seismically retrofit the Golden Gate Bridge in the northern part of the state. In Wisconsin,
Secretary Buttigieg spoke about the planned replacement of the Wisconsin River Bridge with two bridges that will allow for traffic to flow in both directions.
Secretary Buttigieg emphasized that the benefits and job creation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is happening now but will also continue for the next several years.
“Some of these projects are simple road improvements that can be done in one construction season,” Buttigieg said. While others “even at the fastest possible pace, will take years and years to complete.”
“But that was exactly the point,” he said. “This wasn’t about a one-off, one-year project. This is creating a decade of infrastructure improvements that we will then be relying on and using and benefiting from for the rest of our lives.”
Read the full article in Spectrum News NY1.
Last Chance! Register Today for 2nd Annual Virtual NASHTU Fall Conference
The 2nd Annual Virtual Fall NASHTU Conference is scheduled to be held virtually via Zoom tomorrow, October 19 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. PDT / 1 – 3 p.m. EDT. If you haven’t done so, please register today.
The NASHTU Fall Conference is a great opportunity for NASHTU members and interested parties to get together to discuss important updates and state department developments that impact all public employees in the transportation sector. There is no cost to attend the virtual conference.
Join us as we discuss State DOT recruitment and retention, federal legislative challenges, outsourcing public sector transportation work, and other pertinent transportation-related updates.
To register for the free conference, please click here.
We look forward to “seeing” everyone soon.
NASHTU Planning Subcommittee Members: Jon Haines (AFSCME), Jenn Porcari (AFT), Amy Hickey (AFT), Travis Woodward (CSEA/SEIU 2001), Patrick Lyons (New York State Public Employees Federation), Michelle Wheat (Montana Public Employees Federation), Patrick Russell (Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists – MOSES), Joe Dorant (MOSES), Tom Prendergast (MOSES), Nadine Westcott (Professional Engineers in California Government).
2nd Annual Virtual NASHTU Fall Conference Next Week – Register Today!
The 2nd Annual Virtual Fall NASHTU Conference is scheduled to be held virtually via Zoom next Thursday, October 19 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. PDT / 1 – 3 p.m. EDT. If you haven’t done so, please register today.
The NASHTU Fall Conference is a great opportunity for NASHTU members and interested parties to get together to discuss important updates and state department developments that impact all public employees in the transportation sector. There is no cost to attend the virtual conference.
Please mark your calendars to join us as we discuss State DOT recruitment and retention, federal legislative challenges, outsourcing public sector transportation work, and other pertinent transportation-related updates.
To register for the free conference, please click here.
Please spread the word with other transportation and union leaders – everyone is welcome.
We look forward to “seeing” everyone soon.
NASHTU Planning Subcommittee Members: Jon Haines (AFSCME), Jenn Porcari (AFT), Amy Hickey (AFT), Travis Woodward (CSEA/SEIU 2001), Patrick Lyons (New York State Public Employees Federation), Michelle Wheat (Montana Public Employees Federation), Patrick Russell (Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists – MOSES), Joe Dorant (MOSES), Tom Prendergast (MOSES), Nadine Westcott (Professional Engineers in California Government)
NASHTU 2nd Annual Fall Conference – Register TODAY!
At previous NASHTU Annual Conferences, NASHTU attendees have expressed a desire to meet more than once a year to discuss important updates and state developments that impact all NASHTU members. To accommodate this request, last fall NASHTU hosted its first virtual fall conference at no cost to attendees. We are pleased to announce that we are once again planning a free virtual fall conference on October 19 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. PDT/1 – 3 p.m. EDT.
Please mark your calendars to join us as we discuss State DOT recruitment and retention, federal legislative challenges, outsourcing public sector transportation work, and other pertinent transportation-related updates.
To register for the free conference, please click here.
Please spread the word with other transportation and union leaders – everyone is welcome.
NASHTU Planning Subcommittee Members: Jon Haines (AFSCME), Jenn Porcari (AFT), Amy Hickey (AFT), Travis Woodward (CSEA/SEIU 2001), Patrick Lyons (New York State Public Employees Federation), Michelle Wheat (Montana Public Employees Federation), Patrick Russell (Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists – MOSES), Joe Dorant (MOSES), Tom Prendergast (MOSES), Nadine Westcott (Professional Engineers in California Government)
Congressional Chairmen Ask U.S. DOT for Status of VMT Advisory Board
Recently, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper (D-DE) and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-MO) sent a letter to U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg asking for an update on establishing an advisory board, as required by the bipartisan infrastructure law, to study an alternative means for securing sustainable funding for the Highway Trust Fund. The board will inform and provide structure for a new, national pilot program to test mileage-based user fees as a replacement for the current gas tax.
The bipartisan infrastructure law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), tasked U.S. DOT with setting up the Federal System Funding Alternative Advisory Board no later than 90 days after enactment. The IIJA was enacted into law on November 15, 2021. The advisory board has not yet been formed.
The previous surface transportation law, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, provided grants for states to test road usage charges as an alternative to the gas tax. Those pilot programs showed significant promise that using road usage fees could be an alternative source of revenue to sustainably fund transportation programs in the future. The IIJA provides funding for a national pilot program, but this pilot is dependent upon the recommendations of the advisory board.
“The National pilot program will enable Congress to determine the feasibility of road usage charges as a viable funding source and, if they are, to consider these charges during the debate of the next Surface Transportation Authorization bill. We remain concerned that the delay in launching the Advisory Board and the subsequent National pilot program risks preventing the timely development of the data needed for Congress to make an informed decision during that future funding debate,” the letter from Senator Carper and Representative Graves states.
Read the full letter here.
NASHTU Conference Set for 2024 – Save the Date The 2024 NASHTU Conference will be held June 3 through 5, 2024 at the Hilton Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington D.C. Please save
Buttigieg Touts Results of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Recently, U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg hailed some of the achievements of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – also known as the
Last Chance! Register Today for 2nd Annual Virtual NASHTU Fall Conference The 2nd Annual Virtual Fall NASHTU Conference is scheduled to be held virtually via Zoom tomorrow, October 19 from 10
2nd Annual Virtual NASHTU Fall Conference Next Week – Register Today! The 2nd Annual Virtual Fall NASHTU Conference is scheduled to be held virtually via Zoom next Thursday, October 19 from
NASHTU 2nd Annual Fall Conference – Register TODAY! At previous NASHTU Annual Conferences, NASHTU attendees have expressed a desire to meet more than once a year to discuss important updates
Congressional Chairmen Ask U.S. DOT for Status of VMT Advisory Board Recently, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper (D-DE) and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair