Jeff Rosen is a partner at the international law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, based in its Washington, D.C. office. He served in senior government positions from 2003 to 2009. During those years, Rosen served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), as a member of the Board of Directors of Amtrak, and as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Rosen most recently served at the White House as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor for OMB (2006-2009), where his responsibilities included advising the OMB Director and the President with regard to issues concerning the federal budget, agencies' proposed regulations, pending legislation, the promulgation of executive orders, and federal laws related to a wide array of government agencies and programs, including those involving transportation. Rosen first entered public service as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation (2003-2006), after his nomination by President Bush and unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate. In that position he had overall responsibility for DOT's regulatory program, enforcement and litigation activities, legal issues relating to international transportation, and final authority to resolve all legal questions arising within or referred to the department. He served on DOT's Credit Council, dealing with DOT's credit and financing programs (TIFIA, RRIF, Title XI, and Minority Business). In addition, Rosen served as a member of the Board of Directors of Amtrak during 2005 and 2006. He also played a key role in transportation legislation, and testified before committees of Congress on approximately ten occasions.
Before entering public service, Rosen was a litigator with Kirkland & Ellis LLP for more than twenty years, where he served as a member of the Firmwide management committee. He appeared in courts in more than 20 states, handling cases involving a variety of industries, including transportation. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center from 1996 to 2003.
Rosen earned his B.A. in economics with highest distinction from Northwestern University in 1979 and received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1982.
Today much of our transportation infrastructure is owned by state and local governments, but some is privately owned and operated. In general, large airports are owned by local or regional governments, transit lines are owned by cities or local government bodies, roads are owned by states or local governments, and so are many ports. By contrast, most rail tracks are owned by private companies, as are most pipelines. (Of course, there are exceptions in both directions. There are privately-operated marine terminals and some private toll roads, for example, and conversely there are some publicly-owned rail tracks.) In addition, outside of… Read more
While there are many interesting responses to this question, there is another perspective that seems to be missing, so I wanted to note some different views from economists such as Ron Utt and Alan Pisarski: President Obama's New Plan to Decide Where Americans Live and How They Travel (Ron Utt) http://www.heritage.org/Research/SmartGrowth/bg2260.cfm The Tipping Point: The Transportation-Housing Trade-Offs of Suburban, Urban and Rural Living (Alan Pisarski) http://www.heritage.org/Research/SmartGrowth/wp052209a.cfm Will Obama's "Livability" Program Bring Britain's "Hobbit Homes" to America? (Ron Utt) http://www.heritage.org/Research/SmartGrowth/wm2601.cfm… Read more
The benefits and drawbacks of tolling in general are well set out in numerous responses. However, one aspect that often gets overlooked, and can affect one’s view of the merits of tolling, is that cash tolls—with “tollbooths”—create significant problems apart from the revenue involved. As anyone who has ever sat through the long traffic backups approaching Delaware’s I-95 tollbooths on holidays and some weekends can attest, that kind of tolling itself causes major traffic delays. Also, vehicle accidents can generate safety hazards for the toll collectors. Hence, even apart from the payment itself, cash tolling of this type understandably generates some negative… Read more
I agree with Jeff Shane and others about the excellent work of the DOT staff, but have questions about the effectiveness of the stimulus legislation itself, largely because of the way it was designed. The massive $787 billion stimulus package included only $48 billion for transportation. It included $142 billion for all forms of infrastructure, but even among overall infrastructure, transportation received less money than energy and water projects, which tend to take even longer and spend out more slowly. If the stimulus spending for transportation could all be spent in one year, it would have roughly doubled planned federal spending… Read more
Last year DOT Secretary Peters issued an extensive, 80-page set of proposals for reauthorization of surface transportation programs, titled “Refocus. Reform. Renew”. http://knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/tam/aashto.nsf/All+Documents/B9FA645AEA69A10D852574B70063D378//reformproposal08.pdf and http://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot10308.htm. Those proposals would have enabled genuine progress towards completing a reauthorization by September 30, 2009, and continue to deserve careful consideration. But, with regard to the timing, there are some difficult circumstances now facing the Congress. One is that other transportation reauthorizations, such as the FAA and TSA reauthorizations, remain to be completed. Another is the fiscal challenge of a year in which Congress has already appropriated $787 billion in “stimulus” funds, $1.2 trillion in discretionary “minibus”/“CR”/and “omnibus” funds,… Read more
The issue here is not whether transit is worthwhile in various cities, or even whether it warrants additional funding to enable greater use, but whether more federal funds should be given to transit agencies as local operating subsidies. But consider: The proposed source of such federal funds, the highway trust fund, is facing a shortfall already. The proposed use of funds is one that is basically local. Approximately 40% of all transit riders in the U.S. are in one city—New York. http://www.apta.com/research/stats/factbook/documents08/2008_fact_book_final_part_1.pdf Transit is already one of the two most heavily subsidized forms of transportation on a passenger-mile basis, exceeding $100 per 1000… Read more
Bike lanes and pedestrian paths are good things. But if we want more of them, the question is how to pay for them. If states and localities want to do so with state tax dollars, there is no reason the federal government should prevent their doing so. But I agree with those who have been making the point that using the nearly-depleted federal Highway Trust Fund for that purpose would convert the gas tax from the "user pays" principle for the financing of roads to an arbitrary financing source for non-highway projects. That would essentially eliminate the purpose of the Highway Trust Fund, and the federal gas tax revenues might… Read more
The labor policy issues that arise in transportation are not necessarily identical to those in other industries or to national union leaders’ overall priorities. First, transportation is a relatively highly-unionized sector of the economy. Overall, only 8 percent of the private workforce belongs to unions. See http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm. But in the private sector, transportation and utilities have the highest rate of union membership, around 22 percent. Well-known unions are perhaps even more important participants in the auto industry, trucking, cargo ports, railroads, and road construction, among others. In addition, in the public sector, there are large unions representing government workers with… Read more
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