T&I Field Hearings Pick Up Where They Left Off

According to a Transportation Committee staffer, a tentative schedule for the previously postponed field hearings is taking shape. Three hearings were postponed last month when debate ran long (until 4:30 a.m., in fact) on H.R.1, the house bill that cut $61 billion from the FY2011 budget.

According to the staffer, details are still being worked out, but the rescheduled listening sessions (and one new session) are being held as follows:

March 24: Rochester and Cortland, NY
March 25: Scranton and Philadelphia/King of Prussia, PA

The Cortland, NY date is a new hearing, not a rescheduled one. Cortland is in the district of freshman Republican Richard Hanna, who leapfrogged over far more senior members to be named vice chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

We interviewed Hanna about a week after he was sworn in. APTA Government Relations Director Paul Dean told me yesterday that Hanna stood out as one of the most knowledgable new members about transportation among those he's visited with (and he's visited with just about all of them by now). "[Hanna] comes from a construction background and really knows the importance of investment in transportation infrastructure," Dean said.