if confirmed he would replace secretary ray lahood who announced his retirement earlier this year. west virginia senator jay rockefeller chairs this hearing. >> ladies and gentlemen, this hearing will come to order. we have a very distinguished guest to be introduced by two very distinguished senators who are good friends of mine. senator burr? do you want to introduce? >> be happy to. mr. chairman, out to you and the ranking member would probably go first step we will but we don't want to hold you up. we are kind people. [laughter] >> that means there's a baseball game on this afternoon and you would like to get this over with. >> you write. >> mr. chairman, thank you. thank you, ranking member thune come and members of the committee. it's really a pleasure to be here this afternoon with my colleague from north carolina, senator hagan. i want to thank you for holding quickly this important hearing and for the opportunity to introduce a friend and the mayor of charlotte, anthony foxx. first, i want to publicly thank him for his commitment and his willingness to serve in this capaci

. >>> ray lahood is assuring lawmakers that 149 small airport towers slated to be closed in june as part of faa sequester cuts will remain open. >>> memorial day air fares are down slightly this year to an average $241. april gas prices were the lowest in three years at an average of 3.55 a gallon. just how far will 3.55 get you if you drive one of these concept cars at the 18th annual super mileage challenge in indianapolis one gallon of gas will take you well over 1,000 miles. may go slowly. coming up, tim tebow's offers are coming in. plus danica patrick's talents go beyond racing. and why made in detroit means more than of these days. >>> through the years detroit has seen its economic ups and downs especially the latter over the past three decades but now the city once ruled by the auto industry is beginning to attract some unlikely investors and entrepreneurs. >> reporter: a ping pong table, bean bag chairs, screens full of computer code, it looks like silicon valley but it's the motor city. nathan and jay grew up in the detroit suburbs. >> four in professionals. >> reporter: last

. >>> ray lahood is said to be assuring lawmakers that 149 small airport towers, slated to be closedn june, will remain open. >>> memorial day airfares are actually down slightly this year, to an average $341. >>> and aaa says april gas prices were the lowest in three years, at an average $3.55 a gallon. how far will $3.55 get you? well, if you're driving one of these concept cars at the supermileage challenge in indianapolis, one gallon of gas will take you over 1,000 miles. >>> coming up, tim tebow's offers are coming in. but they're probably not the kind he was hoping for. >>> plus, canada patrick's talents appear to go well beyond auto racing. [ male announcer ] running out of steam? ♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. i'm here in your home, having a pretty spectacular tuesday. ♪ but i don't notice the loose rug at the top of your stairs. and that's about to become an issue for me. ♪ and if you got the wrong home insurance cov

ray lahood is reportedly telling congress those control towered will be spared in the same bill that has stopped the furloughs of air traffic controllers. all of this was part of the sequester budget cuts. >>> the family of emmitt till a 10-year-old african american boy that was brutally killed is asking mountain dew to cut ties with lil' wayne. >>> there is word today that grateful dead cofounder bob wear is not going to be on concert. the group has cancelled its appearance at the bottle rock festival in napa. wear hopes to be back on stage by june 1st. >>> actor robin williams is trying to sell his estate and he's cut the price. he's asking 29.9 million. the main house has 20,000 square feet and a state of the art movie theater. being in wine country it also include 18 acres of vineyards but the entire estate is 650 acres. >>> caught on camera, incredible pictures of a cargo jet crashing right after take off. what we know about the americans on board. >>> and our chief meteorologist bill martin bill martin monitoring strong winds tonight. the fire danger for the rest of the week in

ray lahood is reportedly telling congress those control towered will be spared in the same bill thattopped the furloughs of air traffic controllers. all of this was part of the sequester budget cuts. >>> the family of emmitt till a 10-year-old african american boy that was brutally killed is asking mountain dew to cut ties with lil' wayne. >>> there is word today that grateful dead cofounder bob wear is not going to be on concert. the group has cancelled its appearance at the bottle rock festival in napa. wear hopes to be back on stage by june 1st. >>> actor robin williams is trying to sell his estate and he's cut the price. he's asking 29.9 million. the main house has 20,000 square feet and a state of the art movie theater. being in wine country it also include 18 acres of vineyards but the entire estate is 650 acres. >>> caught on camera, incredible pictures of a cargo jet crashing right after take off. what we know about the americans on board. >>> and our chief meteorologist bill martin bill martin monitoring strong winds tonight. the fire danger for the rest of the week in his >

as secretary lahood so ably demonstrated, the job requires a deep understanding of the policy and the political savvy to accomplish the administration's all of which in an era of constraint, which does not seem to want to relax. the department of transportation is enduring a tumultuous time of constrained resources. despite this, the department is tasked with implementing a large number of new safety mandates and, simultaneously, presiding over a transportation infrastructure network in need of significant and immediate how to pay for that, nobody seems to be able to figure out. i can figure it out but it is not a prevailing view. this country's transportation network has been a critical factor in our long-term economic growth. however, years of under- investing in our roads; airports and air traffic control systems; rails; and ports have left us with an overstrained i thinkrtation system. that is probably the greatest week of link in our transportation system has been a drag on our growth. i believe we are on the brink of losing our competitive edge in the global marketplace as a res

. >>> 41 senators today sent a letter to the head of the faa and transportation secretary ray lahood.ter points to a new law aimed at keeping larger airports staffed and said that new law also gives the faa the power to staff towers at small airports. transportation officials say they are reviewing that new law. >>> well parts of the midwest have been blanketed with a sight seasoned snowstorm and some people might be a little teed off about it. at least the ones on this golf course just outside of minneapolis. a few golfers allowed to let the flurries discourage them. they just treated it as it was par for the course. >>> some folks received an inch and a half but no golf sized hail. >> i know we're ready for a cooldown here in the bay area. but i don't think we'll see anything like that. >> no we had a pretty good run. if you think about it those big rains in december. it's been like spring. we've really been dry. we've been warm and today no exception. no records today. these are the actual recorded highs by the national weather service. areas that i have colored in red there repres

he did the walmart thing, offer products that were already priced lahood pam will wall.was beaten dumps. him in and the newest and and and and them. down about 24 pennies. they also can i was something called a special collection products which are markup in newton. the new lock in the coupon didn't. in an it commercial to do it sounds as the j.c. penney is making him the commerical pump. could. >> to the heat has come back. liz: more money into the store away. the thing that will work? and dying to. it was reported that j.c. penney who received money and an a loan from goldman didn't. remains to be seen in what is that health hidden. remember george get a big stock. the closing bell rang in 38 minutes. the battle for your living and of the amendment. cable companies here fighting and when it deals like the nfl. what is next in a fox business exclusive. rare interview and in. stay tuned. mike white coming up. ben and blackened and ♪ [ lighter flicking ] [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where giving up isn't who you are. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to make t

you have a number of republicans that president, ray lahood. a number of republicans president obama has tapped to be members of his cabinet or sort of senior administration positions. >> and finally, this could be everybody's favorite new senator, freshman senator last night at a new york republican fundraiser, ted cruz, praising some of his colleagues. >> if you sit back and you list, who are the brightest stars in the republican party, who are the most effective advocates for free market principles, you come up with names like marco rubio, mike lee, rand paul, pat toomey, scott walker. you have to go back to world war ii to see such a transformation of the people leading the fight, leading the argument for conservative principles being an entirely new generation of leaders. >> so who is not mentioned there? john mccain who called him a whack-a-doodle after he went after chuck hagel. >> a little revenge there. >> a lot of revenge and also associated himself with marco rubio. after all the stories that see them as rivals. especially over immig

i want to give a shout out to secretary ray lahood. i know he is leaving his job soon but he was on the job today. i spoke with him this morning. he assured me that dollars are available to help through emergency relief fund. they have released $1 million. the estimate is $15 million fix. so we still have a little bit to go but they released early dollars to get started on the design for construction of a replacement and repair. >> congressman rick larsen of washington state. i'm sorry this happened in your district. i'm glad the injuries weren't worse and not in was killed. thanks for being with us. >> i appreciate being on tonight. thanks so much. >> all right. newt gingrich. before newt gingrich was known primarily as a salesman of many fine newt gingrich books, dvds and certificates of entrepreneurship, all 19.95, newt gingrich was famous before that for one really bold, really, really bad political move that he made almost 20 years ago now. how the united states government gingriched itself and made newt's mistake itself today. th

chuck hagel, robert gates as defense secretary, ray lahood as transportation secretary. he even named jon huntsman as ambassador to china. how can republicans claim the president doesn't work across the aisle when he's named all of these republican to key posts? >> it's funny, there may be a republican in good standing but as soon as the president embraces them or god forbid nominates them, they become ryan knows, republicans in name only. comey is a republican but he was very tough on albert gonzales and that warrantless wire tapping. >> right. >> he's a law and order kind of guy. in other words, he's exactly the sort of guy who should be running the fbi and it will be -- it's so hard to imagine there being any opposition to him. but it is very also clear that no matter who the president is nominating it's not buying him goodwill with republican sdpls now, talking about republicans, krystal, the new generation of republican leaders certainly are not toning down their rhetoric. listen to this. >> nobody questions his legal authority but i think he's really losing the mor

ray lahood the president appointed to be his secretary of transportation. he put former republican congresswoman ann northrop in. former republican congressman jim leech he installed as head of the national endowment for the humanities. you might remember that president obama tried to nominate judd gregg to be commerce secretary but then judd gregg freaked out and changed his mind and said he didn't want it after all and quit the senate and now he's a lobbyist. class act, judd gregg. who knows how the republicans in the senate are going to react to the james comey nomination when it happens. who knows how republicans in the senate will react to yet another republican being appointed by this democratic president to another high profile administration job. it's interesting, democrats don't seem to much mind their democratic president appointing members of the opposite party. but the opposite party sometimes does seem to mind when republicans are becoming part of this administration. given james comey's reputation, though, i think anybody will find it hard to

lahood who does a tiger granted i don't know if it's my without the arch sets but it is separated from the rest of sort of the downtown mall by interstate 70. the tiger granted seems to be played in places which will connect the park to the rest of the old federal courthouse with the dred scott case was and a lot of other public land in town that is not necessarily federal and. this is i'm told maybe has the potential, already is possibly the biggest joint partnership project that the park service has ever done. the city just voted a $10 million annual tax for the next 20 years that would support this project. i think there are $220 million of private funds that have already been pledged, and, and the arch is 50 years old in october, a 15. so every 50 years you've got to look at these things and see what needs to be done to be sure they can last another 50 years. and that 50th anniversary was one that secretary salazar's october 15, i think his comment the last time he was there was he would move heaven and earth to get this done by october the 28th, 2015. which appears, might be easie

that basic idea is extremely important, and secretary lahood has safety as his number one priority. 2011by the way, the number of deaths on the highways the lowest in recorded history. a real tribute to the private sector's conscience and ingenuity but also the regulatory system's smartest. but there's an inspection requirement that is duplicative and redundant so truck drivers have to inspect both in the night and morning and make up basically the same report. it doesn't add anything. and the truck drivers have that anxiety that you're describing. and they took it away, about 1.6 million burden hours. we've got two more. yeah. >> hi. the issue that you raise about incentivizing and disincentivizing behavior, automatic enrollment, the opposite side of which was a fight that i'm sure you remember many years ago over what was called the negative option about places like the book of the month club sending you, sending every which you had to return or else they would send you a call. .. handgun wonder if there's a way out of that. >> some more optimistic and i hope not unrealistically optimi

three years ago you and secretary lahood sat at this, that same table, for hearing examining some unintended acceleration of toyota vehicles, and nhtsa's investigation into those incidents. at that time i was concerned about nhtsa's capacity to investigate electronic issues. two years later, the national academies of science released a study demonstrating nearly the same concern. and today we're discussing explosive growth of electronics in vehicles. so my first question to you would be, how well are you prepared for this? i mean, your testimony was sort of general, an ubr but i need to know how good, how you realistically assess yourself and your staff in terms of the numbers of people assigned, assuming the cars are going to be this, adding things. make it more attractive. though safety will continue to be the main factor. >> mr. chairman, the secretary and i are very satisfied with the staff that we have on hand to deal with this issue. our budget request has given us an opportunity for the adequate resources on hand and we have the adequate talent on hand right now but as i mentioned in

secretary lahood sat at the same table for a hearing examining some unintended acceleration and toyota vehicles and nhtsa's investigation into this incidence. at that time, i was concerned about capacity to investigate electronic issues. two years later the release studies demonstrating the same concerns and today we discussed the explosive growth of electronics and vehicles. my first question to you would be how well you prepare for this. her testimony was general, umbrella like it didn't dig deep, which is what questions are for. i need to know how you realistically assess your self-interest of in terms of the numbers of people assuming the cars are going to do this, keep on adding things to make it more attractive so that safety will continue to be the main factor. >> mr. chairman, the secretary and i are satisfied with the staff on hand to do with this issue. our budget request has given us an opportunity for resources on hand and we have the talent on hand right now. as i mentioned, with an electronic sub is that in her vehicle team specifically focused on all issues regarding ele

lahood, and a tiger grant. i do not know if you are familiar with how the arch sets, but it is separate from the downtown mall by interstate 70. the tiger grant seems to be in place that will actually connect the park to the rest -- the old federal courthouse where the dread scott case was an and other public land in town that is not necessarily federal land. has the potential i am told of the biggest joint partnership project that the park service has ever done. the city just voted a $10 million annual tax of for the next 20 years that would support this project. there are $220 million of private funds that have been pledged. and the arch is 50 years old in october. years, you have to look at these things and see what needs to be done to make sure they can last another 50 years the 50th anniversary was one that secretary sullivan are salazar, heecretary said he would move heaven and earth to get this done by october, 2015, which it appears that it might be easier to move heaven and earth. there does seem to be

three years ago you and secretary lahood sat at that same table for a hearing examining some unintended the goals. time, i was concerned about the capacity to investigate and that turn it is years. but years later there is this study demonstrates nearly the same concerns. they we are discussing explosive growth to electronics and vehicles. forwell are you prepared this? is your testimony was general. not dig deep, which is what questions are for. i need to know how you realistically assess yourself and your staff in terms of the numbers of people assigned, assuming the cars are going to do this. that safety will continue to be the main factor. >> the secretary and die are very satisfied with the staff we have on hand to deal with this issue. our budget request has given us an opportunity. office a new electronics within our team which is focused on dealing with all issues regarding the electronics. we have 12 full-time employees with an engineering background. in terms of our game plan, i will submit a more detailed answer for the record. very solid game plan on how we will be dealing w

madecretary lahood distracted driving a priority. and i think some strides have been made but it is still a major problem when you look at the statistics. cause of driving deaths of teenagers. do you intend to keep this a focus? >> let me say that one of his legacies will be the push on distracted driving. take that into the dna of the department of transportation and i do not think you have anything to worry about in terms of that issue continuing to be one that will be a focus. i am aware that 10% of our roadway fatalities are tied to distracted driving. if we can eliminate that, we will save lives. >> you are going to be with things like snowmobiles. worked hard with several of my colleagues to ensure the trails program was maintained. this program is very important in my state and other states. it derives its funding from taxes a by off-highway vehicle users when they fill up their machines. will you work to ensure this valuable program continues to meet the needs of all trail users that come -- users? >> for sure. more about it.