In addition to taking testimony from public agency project sponsors and industry leaders during the July 24, 2013 oversight hearing on TIFIA conducted by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee heard from the Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, regarding the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (“USDOT”) implementation of the TIFIA Program since the July 6, 2012 enactment of MAP-21. 

While touting the overall success of the TIFIA program and detailing USDOT’s efforts to move projects through the TIFIA pipeline, Secretary Foxx also announced preliminary plans to move the TIFIA Joint Program Office from its current home under the Federal Highway Administration to the Office of the Secretary.  Citing a need to create a “more streamlined management approach” to address increasingly large and complex loan requests, Secretary Foxx indicated his belief that such a move would allow for more effective implementation of the TIFIA program.  It remains to be seen whether this change will occur and, if it does, whether it will expedite the TIFIA process and approval time.

Click here for Secretary Foxx’s full testimony.