Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao
The results of two recent investigations allege questionable ethical practices by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, connected to the secretary's family shipping business and marriage to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The New York Times
It's only the third full funding grant administration signed by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The $149 million capital investment grant will help fund the 4-mile modern streetcar line from Santa Ana to Garden Grove in Orange County, Calif.
PR Newswire
Congressional leaders agreed to include $540 million, not the original $900+million that could be used for the Hudson River tunnel project, in the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill. President Trump is opposed to any Gateway funding.
Politico New Jersey
The Trump Administration signaled a desire to scrap a funding program that helped fund transit, pedestrian, and bike infrastructure. A new program likely focused on rural and toll roads could take its place.
Streetsblog USA
President Trump is going out of his way to ensure that the Hudson River Tunnel and other projects in the Amtrak Gateway Program don't receive federal funding in the next omnibus spending bill Congress must approve by March 23 to avoid a shutdown.
The Washington Post
Gov. Jerry Brown, Peninsula congresswomen, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and state legislative leaders gathered in Millbrae with shovels-in hands to mark the beginning of a four-year construction project to electrify Caltrain.
The Daily Journal
The president spent Infrastructure Week touting a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan that has yet to materialize, unlike the elimination of an essential grant program in his 2018 budget that will be detrimental to over 50 transit projects.
The Washington Post
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao spoke publically about the need for the federal government to regulate a way forward for the deployment of automated vehicle technology.
The Wall Street Journal
President Trump points to the passage of multi-billion ballot measures last November as proof that federal funding isn't needed to fund transit, justifying elimination of a major grants program. The CEOs of two large transit agencies fight back.
The Source
Funding for Caltrain electrification, which Transportation Secretary Chao approved May 22, is one of 21 transit projects receiving funding in the omnibus spending bill that may be contingent on approval from the Trump Administration.
The Washington Post
A week ago, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao indicated she would not sign-off on the $647 million federal grant for the $2 billion Caltrain electrification project. On Monday, she changed her mind.
The Mercury News
President Trump will take his first trip abroad on Friday to Saudi Arabia, where he hopes to secure a $40 billion investment for his $1 trillion infrastructure plan. At home, Trump's plan was rebuffed by Texas legislators.
Bloomberg Politics
On Tuesday, the Trump administration anticipates unraveling two signature Obama environmental regulations: fuel efficiency standards for model year 2022-2025 light-duty vehicles and beginning the undoing of the Clean Power Plan.
The New York Times
Among the many guidelines and rules going back to the drawing board (or ceremonial execution by executive order) at the federal level are guidelines for self-driving cars released only months ago by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Reuters
In one of her first major decisions, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao deferred a decision on a critical $647 million federal grant to electrify the 51-mile San Francisco to San Jose Caltrain line, which would also be used by high-speed rail.
SF Gate
California's GOP congressional delegation has written the U.S. DOT asking them to delay a vital $647 million grant needed to electrify the 55-mile, San Francisco-to-San Jose commuter line on which 92 diesel-powered commuter trains operate daily.
The Mercury News
Elaine Chao, who served eight years as labor secretary under President George W. Bush, was confirmed on Jan. 31 as the Secretary of Transportation, on a 93-6 vote.
USA Today
