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A new administration may mean sweeping change
across supply chain
For many who ship, haul, warehouse, and
distribute goods for a living, the legacy
of the past eight years will be that of an
administration aggressive in its oversight,
labor-friendly in its legal thinking, and
frustratingly deficient in fulfilling its vow to
make infrastructure a critical part of economic growth.
The administration that takes power in
January is likely to work from a different blueprint. President-elect Donald J.
Trump has made the nation’s infrastructure
a “front-burner issue” along with immigration, health care, and tax reform, according
to James H. Burnley IV, transportation
secretary during the Reagan administration
and a longtime Washington lawyer. Labor
laws that have affected the transportation
and logistics industry may be interpreted in
a manner that doesn’t sit well with unions
accustomed to tailwinds during the Obama
administration, he said. Trucking companies and commercial drivers, many of
whom feel they’ve had a collective bull’s-eye
on their backs from well-intentioned but
costly and onerous safety regulations, may
see some relief should the new administration decide to scuttle several current and
proposed regulations.
The incoming and outgoing administrations have different ideas about how the
world works, and it is apparent that changes—perhaps radical ones—will take place
once President-elect Trump is sworn in,
especially now that a Republican president
is starting his term with GOP majorities in
both chambers for the first time since 1928.
What follows is a look at some of the likely changes ahead:
; Leadership: On Nov. 29, Trump nom-
inated Elaine L. Chao to be secretary of
transportation. The eldest daughter of a
shipping magnate, Chao, 63, is one of
the most seasoned political hands in
Washington. She spent eight years as sec-
retary of labor under President George
W. Bush, served as deputy administrator
of the Maritime Administration (MarAd),
and ran the Peace Corps. Chao, who will be
charged with pushing the administration’s
transport agenda through Congress,
is married to Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
; Infrastructure: The Trump
administration has proposed invest-
ing $550 billion in the nation’s
infrastructure, double what his
opponent, Hillary Clinton, had pro-
posed. On its transition website,
greatagain.gov, the administration
offered no specifics on how it would
be done or paid for. What is evident,
according to Burnley, is that the
president-elect is open to different
and unorthodox ways of getting
things done, and that mindset could
extend to infrastructure investment.
It is unlikely the Trump administra-
tion will push for a hike in the fed-
eral motor fuels tax—which hasn’t
been raised since 1993—given
that tax increases are anathema to
Trump. Besides, many states are
already raising fuels taxes to finance
infrastructure improvements.
What may get a closer look in
a Trump White House is legislation introduced more than three
years ago by Rep. John K. Delaney
(D-Md.) to create an infrastructure fund seeded by the sale of
$50 billion in bonds with 50-year
maturities. U.S. corporations would
be encouraged to buy the bonds by
repatriating, tax free, part of their
foreign earnings in return for ownership of the bonds. The fund would
then leverage the $50 billion investment to provide many more billions
of dollars in infrastruc- p. 19
