[By Politico Pro Transport reporters in September: Kathryn Wolfe, Jessica Myers, Adam Snider and Burgess Everett]
Sept. 13, 2012
WHITE HOUSE FORUM: Top transportation leaders, including Secretary Ray LaHood and FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff, huddled yesterday for a White House forum on job creation and transit’s impact on communities. AFL-CIO TTD’s Ed Wytkind was at the meeting and said it was a forward-thinking discussion of “ways to execute a public transit policy agenda.” Among the topics were how to use new tools in the transportation law, like the TIFIA loan guarantee expansion, workforce development and, of course, some back-and-forth on how to fund transportation long-term. Wytkind had another take away: “You could never have this conversation in the Romney administration.” The Obama “administration is really trying to deal with the transportation crunch.” Under Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, he said, “I think we’re doomed.”
Sept. 10, 2012
‘GAME, SET, MATCH’:That’s how Ed Wytkind, head of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, put the DNC address from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Wytkind told Kathryn he heard Obama pledge to “finally expand and modernize our transportation system. The President also told workers that he believes in and will fight for them. The choice in this election is clear: a choice between a President with a dogged determination to rebuild the middle class and invest in America again and a challenger who just doesn’t understand the needs of working people and has pledged to decimate investments in the very industries that employ our members and drive our economy.”