Transport pick sees path in private cash

She tells panel economic gains ‘jeopardized’ by aging system

WASHINGTON — The incoming Trump administration is looking to “unleash the potential” of private investors to boost the national transportation networks that underpin the U.S. economy, Transportation Secretary-designate Elaine Chao told lawmakers Wednesday.

Economic gains are being “jeopardized” by aging infrastructure, rising highway fatalities, growing congestion and a failure to keep pace with emerging technologies, Chao testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Chao, 63, is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate. She was labor secretary during George W. Bush’s administration and deputy transportation secretary under President George H.W. Bush. Her husband is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

When McConnell introduced Chao at the hearing, he stole a line from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole: “I regret I have only one wife to give for my country.”

Dole’s wife, Elizabeth, is a former transportation and labor secretary.

Chao hasn’t been immune from criticism. Unions say that as labor secretary, she mostly sided with industry when enforcing labor and safety rules.

Chao advocated using “innovative financing tools” that can “take full advantage of the estimated trillions in capital that equity firms, pension funds and endowments can invest.” She said private investment should be encouraged with “a bold, new vision.”

She didn’t detail those incentives, but a paper written by two economic advisers to President-elect Donald Trump recommends providing $137 billion in tax credits to infrastructure investors. His advisers predict that will generate about $1 trillion in investment over 10 years.

But transportation experts note that investors are interested only in transportation projects that produce revenue, such as toll roads, and there are relatively few large projects like that. They say states need financial aid from the federal government to help with a growing backlog of maintenance and repair projects. Providing tax incentives also runs the risk of providing a windfall to investors for projects that would have been built anyway.

Democrats at the hearing tried to pin Chao down on contentious issues such as whether to privatize air traffic control operations and whether she would enforce a deadline for railroads to install train control systems that can prevent many derailments and collisions. Chao said those decisions would be up to the Trump White House or that she hadn’t been briefed on the issues yet.

As transportation secretary, Chao would be responsible for regulating auto, truck, train, transit, pipeline and aviation safety.