United States Secretary of Transportation

“ The Secretary of Transportation is authorized to carry out a program that establishes uniform standards for developing and supporting agency transit pass and transit benefits authorized under section 7905 of title 5, United States Code, including distribution of transit benefits by various paper and electronic media. ”

“ The Secretary of Transportation shall, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations, perform the following functions:
(a) act as a focal point within the Federal government for private sector space launch contacts related to commercial ELV operations;
(b) promote and encourage commercial ELV operations in the same manner that other private United States commercial enterprises are promoted by United States agencies ”

“ You must link up railways and waterways and highways to get a perfect transportation system for this country. If there were no railroads we would have little transportation. If there were no waterways there would be insufficient transportation. If we had an abundance of railways and waterways and lacked the use of highways, we should have imperfect transportation. We should fail to bring it to every man's door, and it must be brought to every man's door to be perfect. ”

“ And after the railroad came, the waterway was all but destroyed, because we thought of transportation as a unity of railroads. Up to a very few years ago all of us who are not far-seeing would have thought of public transportation as meaning essentially the railroads. Yet so rapidly in the last five years has the law of transportation been developed that it is a little bit difficult for us to keep up with the rush of this movement. ”

“ That is exactly the approach President-elect Obama will take as president and is exactly the approach I will take as secretary of Transportation.
We have a task before us to rebuild America. As a nation, we need to continue to be the world leader in infrastructure development. Amtrak, mass transit, light rail, air travel and our roads and bridges all play a vital role in our economy and our well-being as a nation. We cannot stand by while our infrastructure ages and crumbles. We must pursue solid policies that allow our states and communities to address their transportation needs. ”

“ Recognizing the national value of our highways in relation to, and properly coordinated with, other existing transportation mediums, and more particularly the necessity for their immediate development that they might carry their share of the war burden, the Highways Transport Committee was appointed by, and forms a part of, the Council of National Defense. ”

“ It is the solution that seems best designed to achieve the purposes of the Act without interposing insurmountable obstacles to the effective regulation of the national transportation system, the responsibility for which rests, after all, predominantly with the Interstate Commerce Commission. ”

“ The Administrator may impose a prohibition, applicable to a nonattainment area, on the approval by the Secretary of Transportation of any projects or the awarding by the Secretary of any grants, under title 23 other than projects or grants for safety where the Secretary determines, based on accident or other appropriate data submitted by the State, that the principal purpose of the project is an improvement in safety to resolve a demonstrated safety problem and likely will result in a significant reduction in, or avoidance of, accidents. ”

“ Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, under and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the foregoing resolutions and statute, and by virtue of all other powers thereto me enabling, do hereby, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, take possession and assume control at 12 o'clock noon on the twenty-eighth day of December, 1917, of each and every system of transportation and the appurtenances thereof located wholly or in part within the boundaries of the continental United States and consisting of railroads, and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and inland transportation, engaged in general transportation, whether operated by steam or by electric power, including also terminals, terminal companies and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars, private cars and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraph and telephone lines and all other equipment and appurtenances commonly used upon or operated as a part of such rail or combined rail and water systems of transportation, to the end that such systems of transportation be utilized for the transfer and transportation of troops, war material and equipment to the exclusion so far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, and that so far as such exclusive use be not necessary or desirable, such systems of transportation be operated and utilized in the performance of such other services as the national interest 140may require and of the usual and ordinary business and duties of common carriers. ”

“ Congress has set that forth for us broadly in the declaration of policy [6] -in essence it is the regulation of transportation by motor carriers in the public interest so as to achieve adequate, efficient and economical service. To implement that policy Congress forbade common carriers by motor vehicle to operate in interstate commerce without securing a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Commission, [7] and required contract carriers to secure a permit from that body. ”

“ Project Designation.— The Secretary may designate a project to be a short sea transportation project if the Secretary determines that the project may— (1) offer a waterborne alternative to available landside transportation services using documented vessels; and (2) provide transportation services for passengers or freight (or both) that may reduce congestion on landside infrastructure using documented vessels. (e) Elements of Program.— For a short sea transportation project designated under this section, the Secretary may— (1) promote the development of short sea transportation services ”

“ Funds appropriated or limited in this Act shall be subject to the terms and conditions stipulated in section 350 of Public Law 107-87 and section 6901 of Public Law 110-28, including that the Secretary submit a report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees annually on the safety and security of transportation into the United States by Mexico-domiciled motor carriers. ”

“ Every day, Americans rely on roads, rails, ports, and airports to get to work and to transport goods and services. At the same time, the United States Armed Forces rely on our transportation infrastructure to move personnel and supplies. During National Transportation Week and on National Defense Transportation Day, we underscore the importance of the transportation system to our Nation's economy and security. We also honor the dedicated professionals who build, maintain, and operate our transportation infrastructure. ”

“ No authority can be found in any Act of Congress for the imposition of this surcharge on the Northeast solely to penalize it for being able to transport goods cheaper due to its density of population and volume of traffic. The policy of Congress remains as it long has stood: 'adequate and efficient railway transportation service at the lowest cost consistent with the furnishing of such service.' Interstate Commerce Act, § 15a (2) , 48 Stat. ”

“ The motor trucks transport less than carload lots of freight in complete coordination with the rail service. The railroad instituted this additional method of transportation in order to furnish an improved and more convenient freight service to the public in certain areas of light traffic and in order to curtail car mileage and way-freight service. Motor vehicle transportation, in other words, is merely a new method of carrying on part of its all-rail freight business in which it had been engaged for many years. ”

“ The motive power and cars thus freed from short-haul work can be employed in very important long-distance service. The Railroad Administration has indorsed motor transportation for this work and reported that this form of relief will make it possible for the railroads to operate more effectively under the present traffic congestion; hence shippers using the highways are assisting in the solution of transportation problems and rendering a patriotic service. ”

“ It affects not only shipments of linoleum, and motor carriers, but many kinds of shipment and all kinds of carriers within the Commission's jurisdiction. It may touch vitally the public interest. It involves, to some extent, the important task of reconciling previously established railroad policies with, or adapting them to, the requirements of the presently effective National Transportation Policy and its application to a coordinated transportation system. ”

“ No doubt the Commission is under obligation to heed what was declared to be 'the national transportation policy of the Congress,' namely, 'to provide for fair and impartial regulation of all modes of transportation subject to the provisions of this Act, so administered as to recognize and preserve the inherent advantages of each.' Surely these are not mechanical or self-defining standards. They inevitably imply the widest areas for judgment to be exercised, as the Commission has sought to exercise it, with the massive experience which must be attributed to it in this particular case. ”

“ Using state-of-the-art technology, we are developing a single integrated system that links all forms of transportation and enables the user-passenger or shipper-to choose the service that best meets the immediate need. The Department of Transportation is working on a National Transportation System to address modern concerns of efficiency and environmental safety, and we are looking toward States, communities, and the private sector to join in investing strategically in the transportation infrastructure of the future. ”

“ The Interstate System accounts for just over one percent of the total road mileage in the United States, yet it carries approximately 20 percent of the Nation's total traffic volume. Employing the most advanced highway safety designs ever devised, the Interstate System is one of the Nation's safest modes of transportation. ”

“ So long as it may fairly be said that the practice required from the motor carrier falls within the meaning the Commission has given to auxiliary and supplemental, the condition is valid.
Such restrictions hamper railroad companies in the use of their physical facilities-stations, terminals, warehouses-their personnel and their capital in the development of their transportation enterprises to encompass all or as much of motor transportation as the roads may desire. The announced transportation policy of Congress did not permit such development. ”

“ When competition, public interest in the preservation of the inherent advantages of rails and motors, and use of motor service by railroads in their operation, are the basis, as they are (see National Transportation Policy, 54 Stat. 899 and § 5 (2) (b) for allowing acquisitions of motor routes by railroads, we think it consonant with that policy to reserve the right to make further limitations, restrictions or modifications to insure that the service remain auxiliary or supplemental. ”

“ It is not enough that the railroad's motor operations are found by the Commission to be of a different character from over-the-road motor operations because they are integrated with railroad operation. The Commission must also consider the disadvantage to the public of a serious impairment of the non-rail motor carriers. Those affected are entitled to fully develop the bearing of the proposals on the transportation agencies which are involved. ”

“ Preparedness is proportionately of as much benefit to the individual as to the Nation, and if consideration is now given by the shippers to the few problems that may be confronting them in connection with highway transportation, they will be in a position to profit by this form of transportation when the needs arise.
It is the purpose of the Highways Transport Committee to bring about as quickly as possible an organization of return-load bureaus in all States where it will be beneficial to establish reciprocal relations. ”

“ The United States has the finest, safest transportation system in the world-superior highways and waterways, railroads, pipelines, and airports. This system unites a diverse Nation, provides economic opportunity, and enhances our quality of life by giving our citizens almost unrestricted mobility. ”

“ The highway planner plans a system and the engineer builds and maintains it, but they do not provide highway transportation. A railroad company provides transportation; an airline provides transportation; a transit company provides transportation; but the highway agency provides for transportation.
From another viewpoint, the question sometimes is raised as to whether we in the United States do any highway planning. ”

“ The first thing to do is to deal with the great corporations engaged in the business of interstate transportation. As I said in my message of December 6 last, the immediate and most pressing need, so far as legislation is concerned, is the enactment into law of some scheme to secure to the agents of the Government such supervision and regulation of the rates charged by the railroads of the country engaged in interstate traffic as shall summarily and effectively prevent the imposition of unjust or unreasonable rates. It must include putting a complete stop to rebates in every shape and form. ”

“ Manifestly, we have need to begin on plans to coordinate all transportation facilities. We should more effectively connect up our rail lines with our carriers by sea. We ought to reap some benefit from the hundreds of millions expended on inland waterways, proving our capacity to utilize as well as expend. We ought to turn the motor truck into a railway feeder and distributor instead of a destroying competitor.
It would be folly to ignore that we live in a motor age. The motor car reflects our standard of living and gauges the speed of our present-day life. ”