TRANSPORT POLICIES * USA - White House Releases Partial Highway Reauthorization Bill

Washington,DC,USA -Expediters On Line, by Oliver B. Patton -May 4, 2011:  -- The White House released a partial proposal for a six-year transportation reauthorization bill that would, among other things, begin the process of testing a mileage-based funding system... The draft proposal, called the Transportation Opportunities Act, is being billed as a trial balloon for ideas that the administration would like to see included in a reauthorization bill that Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, has said should be on President Obama's desk by August... Besides a pilot test for the new funding mechanism, the bill proposes new tolling options, ways to speed up the delivery of infrastructure projects, program reforms at the Department of Transportation, creation of a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, and creation of an Office of Freight Policy at DOT...