1.This Act may be cited as the
Transportation Efficiency Act
.
2.National
intermodal transportation planning task force
(a)Establishment of
task forceThe President shall create a National Intermodal
Transportation Planning Task Force (referred to in this Act as Task
Force
) with the Secretary of Transportation, or designee, acting as
chairperson and compromised of representatives of the Departments of Commerce,
Energy, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection
Agency and other government agencies the President considers necessary to
conduct the study and complete the Plan required by this Act.
(b)The Task Force shall—
(1)conduct a study on
transportation needs, a draft of which shall be completed not later than 12
months after the date of enactment of this Act and the final study shall be
completed not later than 15 months after the date of enactment of this
Act;
(2)sponsor a
conference on National Transportation Planning not later than 6 months after
the completion of the draft study;
(3)make
recommendations to the President for possible invitees to the conference on
National Transportation Planning described in section 3;
(4)use the study and
the input of attendees of the conference under section 3 to draft a National
Intermodal Transportation Plan (referred to in this Act as Plan
)
not later than 24 months after the date of enactment of this Act and publish it
in the Federal Register and place it on the Department’s Web site for public
comment; and
(5)transmit to
Congress, and place on the Department of Transportation’s Web site, a National
Intermodal Transportation Plan not later than 24 months after the date of
enactment of this Act.
3.National
transportation studyIn
developing the study established pursuant to section 1, the Task Force shall
consider all aspects and all modes of transportation, public, private, and
commercial, including air, rail (passenger and freight), road, port, waterway,
bicycle, and pedestrian. The study shall project for the next 30 years and
examine and identify for such period of time the following:
(1)National
transportation priorities.
(2)The anticipated
demand, steps currently being taken to address anticipated demand, how
successful these steps are anticipated to be, the most advantageous allocation
of shipments of goods and travel among the various capacities of various modes,
connectivity of those modes, and comparative costs. Comparative costs shall
take into account past public investments in currently existing infrastructure
for each transportation mode.
(3)Deficiencies in
the current and currently planned transportation systems to meet current and
anticipated demand and the appropriate level of redundancies.
(4)How intermodal
transportation planning may help address anticipated transportation demand,
social impacts of transportation, and the impact of the transportation sector
on the environment, particularly global warming.
(5)What obstacles
exist to enhance and improve intermodal transportation planning to meet
national priorities so that the national Plan provides suggestions on policy
and legislative recommendations to such obstacles.
(6)Transportation
purposes, systems operational requirements and capacities, comparative
long-term costs, and revenue sources.
(7)How different
agencies and levels of government may be better incorporated and coordinated to
improve transportation planning.
(8)Obstacles to
potential benefits from, and current efforts in mega-region planning at the
national and regional level.
4.National
transportation planning conference
(a)The Task Force shall convene a National Transportation
Priorities Conference (referred to in this Act as the
Conference
) not later than 6 months after the completion of the
draft National Transportation Study.
(b)The mission of the Conference shall be—
(1)to review the
draft of the study conducted pursuant to section 2 and comment on the draft’s
findings;
(2)to discuss ways to
improve transportation planning;
(3)to suggest
short-term and long-term goals to be incorporated into the Plan;
(4)to examine and
evaluate how environmental priorities and economic planning are integrated into
transportation planning;
(5)to identify
obstacles to meeting those goals and suggestion measures to reduce or eliminate
those obstacles; and
(6)to perform other
tasks that the Task Force considers helpful to complete the Study and the
Plan.
(c)Conference
representativesThe Conference shall be comprised of
representatives appointed by the President of the following:
(1)State Departments
of Transportation.
(2)State
legislatures.
(3)Municipal
leaders.
(4)Metropolitan
planning organizations.
(5)Transportation
nonprofit and advocacy groups.
(6)Bike and
pedestrian and other transportation safety organizations.
(7)Transportation
trade associations.
(8)Small and large
transportation companies.
(9)Environmental
organizations.
(10)Labor
unions.
(11)Academia.
(12)And other groups
the Task Force considers helpful in achieving the conference’s mission.
5.National
intermodal transportation plan
(a)The Plan developed under this Act shall include all
aspects and all modes of transportation, both public and private, including
rail, aviation, waterways, roads, ports, bicycle, and pedestrian and shall
include the following:
(1)Summary of the
findings of the study.
(2)Short-term and
long-term goals.
(3)A
description of how each short-term goal will lead to, or at least not preclude,
achieving long-term goals.
(4)Incremental steps
and performance measures to achieve such goals.
(5)What public and
private resources will be required to implement the Plan.
(6)Any recommended
legislative changes that are necessary to meet national priorities and the
short-term and long-term goals, including better intermodal transportation and
mega-region planning.
(7)An exploration of
potential alternatives to what is proposed in the Plan.
(b)The long-term goals in the Plan shall take into account the
following:
(1)Accessibility,
including how best to reasonably ensure that the various parts of the country
have access to the national transportation system (road, rail routes, air
routes, and water routes), including how and when public subsidies or
regulation may be needed.
(2)Mobility,
including the ease and expense of getting people and goods to their desired
destination in order to meet economics and societal needs.
(3)National security,
including addressing moving people and goods by alternative routes and modes in
the face of either a natural or man-made disaster or intentional act.
(4)Economic
prosperity, including addressing how a vibrant economy requires timely and
cost-effective movement of goods and services and how various national
transportation policies can positively and negatively effect local and regional
economies.
(5)Social equity,
including addressing the fact that transportation decisions have different
costs and benefits on differing segments of our society and how goals may be
established to help minimize those differences and ensure that vulnerable
segments of society do not pay a disproportionate percentage of the
cost.
(6)Evaluate the
environmental protection, including addressing the fact that transportation
issues will have varying impacts on the environment from its contribution to
green house gasses and other emissions to short-term economic costs that may
lead to a decision that is counter to a long-term environmental benefit.
(7)Energy
consumption, including addressing how to minimize overall transportation sector
energy needs and utilizing cost-benefit analysis based upon full-cost
accounting.
6.There are
authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this
Act.