Contributor
Pete K. Rahn, Director, Missouri Department of Transportation
Biography provided by participant
As director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, Pete Rahn oversees the work of more than 6,000 employees who plan, build and maintain the state's transportation system. This includes 32,000 miles of highways and the state support of aviation, rail, transit, and port systems. Rahn assumed his position in September 2004.
At the national level, he is immediate past president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Chair, Standing Committee on Performance Management, as well as a member of its board of directors. He also serves on the executive committee of the Transportation Research Board.
From 1995-2002 he held the post of Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department.
Rahn graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor of arts in government and a bachelor of science in planning.
Rahn was raised in New Mexico. He and his wife, Sue, have two children. His free time is spent enjoying family and outdoor activities.
July 28, 2009 03:06 PM
The transportation sector has delivered on its promise to put people to work and get money circulating in the economy. The problem is that the national media doesn’t understand how federal transportation funding works. Unlike most of the rest of stimulus funding, transportation is not a direct payment to states or contractors, but rather is on a reimbursement basis. Even before the state spends the money, contractors have to place orders for steel, asphalt, concrete and rock. These orders put people to work preparing for delivery to the contractor at which point the supplier gets paid. Suppliers take the…
Read moreJanuary 6, 2009 01:31 PM
Even in a somewhat diminished free market like the United States economy is today, consumers still make individual choices that make economic sense to them – without regard to long-term transportation implications. Fluctuating gas prices clearly undermine the critical national interest of getting away from imported petroleum. While the current price retreat will likely be short-lived and almost certainly $3 a gallon gas will be back by the end of 2010, it does not mean U.S. / state governmental policy has to swing as wildly as consumer choice does. In fact, the current lull in gas prices provides an ideal…
Read moreDecember 10, 2008 01:23 PM
Congress and the Obama administration should commit at least $50 billion of a stimulus package to highway and bridge improvements - $25 billion a year for two years. The funds should be distributed by the existing SAFETEA-LU formula, because any attempt to select projects from Washington, D.C., would surely get bogged down in bureaucratic processes that would delay putting these funds to work. The first-year funds should be redistributed if not under contract within 180 days. The second-year funds should be directed to projects of more substance, but those projects should also be under contract by the end of…
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