buzz

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The Podesta Group has unmatched expertise when it comes to issues related to transportation and infrastructure. For more than twenty years, we have reframed debates and changed narratives, making sure our clients’ priorities and messages are front-and-center with decision-makers across the nation. This has become particularly important in the transportation and infrastructure sector in recent years, with an intensified level of government investment in public and private rail, waterworks and transportation systems. Transportation success requires a partner who knows decision-makers and has both deep policy acumen and political sophistication. With a highly skilled team that has worked extensively within the administration, for high-profile members of Congress, Congressional committees, and for corporations across the country, the Podesta Group is best positioned to ensure success.

Wins
The structure was broken. It has been repaired.

Transportation

Buzz

American for Tax Reform
February 9, 2011

Transportation is going to be a big issue in the 112th Congress - the first action taken by the Senate this year was on the FAA Reauthorization, and yesterday the Senate Finance Committee marked up the Airport and Airway Trust Fund Reauthorization Act. The Vice President's announcement yesterday that the government will continue to pour tax dollars into the high-speed rail black hole, coupled with the President's persistent calls for more "investment" in infrastructure ensures this year will be a banner one for transportation.
The Washington Post
February 4, 2011

You might recall the opening salvo two years ago, when then-Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) introduced the End Discriminatory State Taxes for Automobile Renters Act of 2009. The law, backed by car rental companies, would have limited the excise taxes that a municipality could levy on the agencies' vehicles. Cities fought the measure, saying that it would limit their ability to raise money and that it represented an unwanted federal intrusion.

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Pulse

Transportation Reauthorization: A Long and Rocky Road
March 20, 2012

For decades, while Democrats and Republicans have squabbled over almost everything else, federal transportation and infrastructure investments have consistently enjoyed bipartisan support.

That’s been because these programs allow senators and representatives to help make Americans’ lives easier and help businesses move their goods, while supporting job creation and economic development.

What’s not to like?
Transportation Reauthorization: Stuck in the Muck
July 28, 2011

When it comes to transportation authorization, lately another day on the Hill feels more like an afternoon on I-495 – jammed. But with businesses, labor and local governments clamoring for action, Congress is facing inflated pressure to get something done, with deflated funds to do so and in an increasingly gridlocked environment. Given this dilemma, now, more than ever, organizations dependent upon the revenues and jobs generated by this legislation are wise to get in strategic gear to try to gain real traction in the ongoing debate.

Transportation Reauthorization: Trucking Along
February 11, 2010

Jaime Harrison, former Executive Director for the House Democratic Caucus and Floor Director for Majority Whip James Clyburn, heads the Podesta Group’s work on transportation.

Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower’s interstate highway plan revolutionized travel and commerce in America. A half-century later, with crumbling bridges, an underfunded interstate highway system and no coordinated national transportation policy, is it time for the next bold move? Transportation reform could be the sleeper issue of the 111th Congress.