Anthony Foxx coasts through hearing to take wheel at Transportation

[cpzilliacus]

McClatchy Washington Bureau:  Anthony Foxx coasts through hearing to take wheel at Transportation

Anthony Foxx avoided the controversy of other Capitol Hill hearings Wednesday, receiving a mostly warm reception from senators who considered his nomination to become transportation secretary.

Foxx probably will get easy confirmation by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, followed by the full Senate, as most nominees to head the Department of Transportation have before him.

But the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., would come to an agency that faces huge budget challenges, including the mandatory spending cuts known as sequestration, as well as a diminishing fund to construct and maintain the country's highways and transit systems.

Foxx said he'd learned in four years as mayor to "work within what's there,"  adding that he couldn't guarantee that all choices would be painless.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who chairs the committee, told Foxx he can't do his job effectively without revenue and to push Congress to give him what he needs.

"You have a huge job in front of you,"  Rockefeller said. "The challenges are many and the solutions are hard."

Senators at the hearing all voiced concern about decreasing amounts of money for fixing the nation's roads and bridges and upgrading its air-traffic control system. The federal gasoline tax, long a major source of transportation funding, has lost more than a third of its purchasing power since Congress last raised it 20 years ago.

[Henry]

So this means Charlotte will have its second new mayor after a certain man who's now the governor left office? Interesting.

Also, congratulations and good luck, Mr. Foxx!

[DSS5]

Coming soon: nationwide streetcar system.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post:  Anthony Foxx sworn in as Secretary of Transportation

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was sworn in Tuesday as the 17th Secretary of Transportation, during a private ceremony at DOT's headquarters not far from Nationals' Park.

Foxx, a Democrat, replaces former Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood – one of a handful of Republicans who served in the Obama administration. Foxx, who was confirmed by the Senate on June. 27 by a vote of 100-0, was sworn in by Judge Nathaniel Jones. Foxx worked as a law clerk for Jones at the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.