Following Up...
If the Federal Highway Administration headquarters folks got a bit hacked off by my message a few weeks ago urging FHWA ITS specialists and others to share their insight into the TTID program/Traffic.com monopoly with the USDOT Inspector General's audit team, you may see steam coming out of their ears when they find out about the one that's going out as we speak. -- JW
Dear FHWA ITS Specialist,
As I mentioned in my email message back on April 3, the more I have found about the history of the ITIP/TTID program and what Sen. Hatch calls a "monopoly on traffic data collection" (link), the more I have come to believe that this is not the way that a federal program should work in the public interest.
My white paper, "The U.S. TTID Program: When Politics, Competition, and the Public Interest Collide" (link), traces the history of this controversial program from the passage of TEA-21 to the present day. I hope you have found this white paper, and the many documents and resources it links to, eye opening. I would like to share just a few of the many additional facts that I have learned from my research into this program:
- Fact: Both Traffic.com Vice President John Collins and former USDOT (and later DHS) Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson were Senior Vice Presidents of the American Trucking Associations in 1997, during the period when numerous people and organizations were working on the language for the forthcoming TEA-21 transportation authorization bill. Mr. Collins was Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs at ATA (link1, link2, link3) and Mr. Jackson was Senior Vice President for Policy Matters at ATA (link). During this timeframe Congressman Bud Shuster from Pennsylvania, then the Chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was one of the principle supporters of language authorizing the ITIP program in TEA-21.
- Fact: an article in the New York Times in June, 1997 includes the following quote: "Mr. Collins assured him [ATA CEO Donohue] that the chairman of the Transportation Committee, Representative Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania, was at that moment writing a hot letter to Mr. Archer, whose committee is in charge of tax writing" (link).
- Fact: Jack Schenendorf, the Chief of Staff for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during Cong. Shuster's tenure as Chairman of that committee, served on the Bush/Cheney Transition effort where he was Chief of the Transition Policy Team (link). Mr. Schenendort's law firm, Covington and Burling, acted as counsel for Traffic.com's initial public offering in early 2006 (link).
- Fact: Cong. Shuster's son, Robert L. Shuster, was also a member of the transportation transition team (link). Robert L. Shuster was a registered lobbyist for Traffic.com in 2006 (link), and was also involved in a lease arrangement for the company (link). In January of this year, "Robert Shuster Jr." and an associate at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC registered as lobbyists for Traffic.com (link).
- Fact: In May 2001, Michael P. Jackson became Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (link), rejoining USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta, with whom he had worked for several years at Lockheed Martin IMS’s Transportation Systems and Services Division. At Lockheed Martin IMS, Jackson served as Chief Operating Officer, while Mr. Mineta served as Senior Vice President (link). The June 2001 newsletter of the Center for Public Integrity called the situation where two executives from a single company were taking the top two slots at the USDOT "unprecedented at DOT" (link).
- Fact: In 2001, after Cong. Shuster retired from Congress several months after being rebuked by the House Ethics Committee for ethics violations and the subject of an expose on 60 Minutes (link), Cong. Shuster's former Chief Counsel, Roger Nober, became counsel for USDOT Deputy Secretary Jackson. Mr. Nober, who according to his own words in an interview was the principal Transportation Committee staff person responsible for drafting TEA-21, had been asked by USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta "to serve in a sort of senior capacity there as counsel to Michael Jackson at the time" (link).
- Fact: Traffic.com has long been trying to leverage its "ITS infrastructure" (subsidized through the ITIP/TTID program in many of nation's most traffic congested cities) into homeland security business, a fact substantiated by multiple reports in the press (link1, link2) as well as Traffic.com's own press release (link). David Jannetta, the long-time President of Traffic.com and former mayor of the largest city in Cong. Bud Shuster's old congressional district (link), Altoona, PA, made this statement in a hearing of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit on Sept. 10, 2002: "We are developing ways to leverage our existing ITS infrastructure to enhance homeland security efforts in our deployment areas."
- Fact: Mark Holman, a Principal with the lobbying firm Blank Rome Government Relations (link), was formerly the Chief of staff for then PA Governor Tom Ridge, who later became the first Homeland Security Secretary. Mr. Holman was a registered lobbyist for Traffic.com (Mobility Technologies) both before (link) and after (link) serving as Deputy Assistant to President Bush on Homeland Security (link).
- Fact: On March 10, 2005, former USDOT Deputy Secretary Jackson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this role, he also served as Chief Operating Officer (link).
- Fact: Jack Tomarchio, co-founder and lobbyist for Hill Solutions in Wayne, PA -- the same town in which Traffic.com's headquarters is located -- was a registered lobbyist for Traffic.com (Mobility Technologies) in 2004 (link) and 2005 (link). In October, 2005, Buchanan Ingersoll acquired Hill Solutions (link).
- Fact: In early 2006, Mr. Tomarchio assumed a new senior position at DHS as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis (link). In his role, Mr. Tomarchio helps lead "information sharing" efforts (link).
- Fact: On August 24, 2007, the non-profit Project on Government Oversight sent a very detailed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (link) to DHS, requesting a variety of different materials (email messages, meeting notes, calendar entries, etc.) related to both Mr. Jackson's and Mr. Tomarchio's connections with Traffic.com.
- Fact: On September 24, 2007, exactly one month after POGO's FOIA request, DHS Deputy Secretary Jackson announced that he was resigning from that position (link). The Federal Times reported that this announcement was unexpected, because DHS Secretary Chertoff had recently assured House Homeland Security Chairman Cong. Bennie Thompson that "no senior leadership would be leaving" (link).
- Fact: According to press reports, Mr. Jackson's resignation as DHS Deputy Secretary was to be effective October 26, 2007 (link). On October 17, 2007, POGO's General Counsel Scott Amey sent an email message to DHS, putting that department on notice that they needed to make sure that Mr. Jackson didn't remove any information from their files that would be responsive to POGO's FOIA request when he left that job. Just two days before that email message, Mr. Amey and POGO sent a formal letter to USDOT Secretary Mary Peters (copying top transportation legislators and USDOT Inspector General Scovel) urging an investigation into the TTID program/contract (link).
- Fact: DHS has thus far sent two letters to POGO related to its FOIA request (link1, link2) but has yet to provide any of the materials specified in that request.
I thought that you might find these facts interesting, as I did.
Jerry
Dear FHWA ITS Specialist,
As I mentioned in my email message back on April 3, the more I have found about the history of the ITIP/TTID program and what Sen. Hatch calls a "monopoly on traffic data collection" (link), the more I have come to believe that this is not the way that a federal program should work in the public interest.
My white paper, "The U.S. TTID Program: When Politics, Competition, and the Public Interest Collide" (link), traces the history of this controversial program from the passage of TEA-21 to the present day. I hope you have found this white paper, and the many documents and resources it links to, eye opening. I would like to share just a few of the many additional facts that I have learned from my research into this program:
- Fact: Both Traffic.com Vice President John Collins and former USDOT (and later DHS) Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson were Senior Vice Presidents of the American Trucking Associations in 1997, during the period when numerous people and organizations were working on the language for the forthcoming TEA-21 transportation authorization bill. Mr. Collins was Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs at ATA (link1, link2, link3) and Mr. Jackson was Senior Vice President for Policy Matters at ATA (link). During this timeframe Congressman Bud Shuster from Pennsylvania, then the Chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was one of the principle supporters of language authorizing the ITIP program in TEA-21.
- Fact: an article in the New York Times in June, 1997 includes the following quote: "Mr. Collins assured him [ATA CEO Donohue] that the chairman of the Transportation Committee, Representative Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania, was at that moment writing a hot letter to Mr. Archer, whose committee is in charge of tax writing" (link).
- Fact: Jack Schenendorf, the Chief of Staff for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during Cong. Shuster's tenure as Chairman of that committee, served on the Bush/Cheney Transition effort where he was Chief of the Transition Policy Team (link). Mr. Schenendort's law firm, Covington and Burling, acted as counsel for Traffic.com's initial public offering in early 2006 (link).
- Fact: Cong. Shuster's son, Robert L. Shuster, was also a member of the transportation transition team (link). Robert L. Shuster was a registered lobbyist for Traffic.com in 2006 (link), and was also involved in a lease arrangement for the company (link). In January of this year, "Robert Shuster Jr." and an associate at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC registered as lobbyists for Traffic.com (link).
- Fact: In May 2001, Michael P. Jackson became Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (link), rejoining USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta, with whom he had worked for several years at Lockheed Martin IMS’s Transportation Systems and Services Division. At Lockheed Martin IMS, Jackson served as Chief Operating Officer, while Mr. Mineta served as Senior Vice President (link). The June 2001 newsletter of the Center for Public Integrity called the situation where two executives from a single company were taking the top two slots at the USDOT "unprecedented at DOT" (link).
- Fact: In 2001, after Cong. Shuster retired from Congress several months after being rebuked by the House Ethics Committee for ethics violations and the subject of an expose on 60 Minutes (link), Cong. Shuster's former Chief Counsel, Roger Nober, became counsel for USDOT Deputy Secretary Jackson. Mr. Nober, who according to his own words in an interview was the principal Transportation Committee staff person responsible for drafting TEA-21, had been asked by USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta "to serve in a sort of senior capacity there as counsel to Michael Jackson at the time" (link).
- Fact: Traffic.com has long been trying to leverage its "ITS infrastructure" (subsidized through the ITIP/TTID program in many of nation's most traffic congested cities) into homeland security business, a fact substantiated by multiple reports in the press (link1, link2) as well as Traffic.com's own press release (link). David Jannetta, the long-time President of Traffic.com and former mayor of the largest city in Cong. Bud Shuster's old congressional district (link), Altoona, PA, made this statement in a hearing of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit on Sept. 10, 2002: "We are developing ways to leverage our existing ITS infrastructure to enhance homeland security efforts in our deployment areas."
- Fact: Mark Holman, a Principal with the lobbying firm Blank Rome Government Relations (link), was formerly the Chief of staff for then PA Governor Tom Ridge, who later became the first Homeland Security Secretary. Mr. Holman was a registered lobbyist for Traffic.com (Mobility Technologies) both before (link) and after (link) serving as Deputy Assistant to President Bush on Homeland Security (link).
- Fact: On March 10, 2005, former USDOT Deputy Secretary Jackson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this role, he also served as Chief Operating Officer (link).
- Fact: Jack Tomarchio, co-founder and lobbyist for Hill Solutions in Wayne, PA -- the same town in which Traffic.com's headquarters is located -- was a registered lobbyist for Traffic.com (Mobility Technologies) in 2004 (link) and 2005 (link). In October, 2005, Buchanan Ingersoll acquired Hill Solutions (link).
- Fact: In early 2006, Mr. Tomarchio assumed a new senior position at DHS as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis (link). In his role, Mr. Tomarchio helps lead "information sharing" efforts (link).
- Fact: On August 24, 2007, the non-profit Project on Government Oversight sent a very detailed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (link) to DHS, requesting a variety of different materials (email messages, meeting notes, calendar entries, etc.) related to both Mr. Jackson's and Mr. Tomarchio's connections with Traffic.com.
- Fact: On September 24, 2007, exactly one month after POGO's FOIA request, DHS Deputy Secretary Jackson announced that he was resigning from that position (link). The Federal Times reported that this announcement was unexpected, because DHS Secretary Chertoff had recently assured House Homeland Security Chairman Cong. Bennie Thompson that "no senior leadership would be leaving" (link).
- Fact: According to press reports, Mr. Jackson's resignation as DHS Deputy Secretary was to be effective October 26, 2007 (link). On October 17, 2007, POGO's General Counsel Scott Amey sent an email message to DHS, putting that department on notice that they needed to make sure that Mr. Jackson didn't remove any information from their files that would be responsive to POGO's FOIA request when he left that job. Just two days before that email message, Mr. Amey and POGO sent a formal letter to USDOT Secretary Mary Peters (copying top transportation legislators and USDOT Inspector General Scovel) urging an investigation into the TTID program/contract (link).
- Fact: DHS has thus far sent two letters to POGO related to its FOIA request (link1, link2) but has yet to provide any of the materials specified in that request.
I thought that you might find these facts interesting, as I did.
Jerry
posted by Jerry Werner | 2:46 PM
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