Transportation Secretary LaHood Creates Team to Coordinate DOT Role in Economic Recovery

February 4th 2008: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that he has created a team at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to coordinate the Department’s role in President Obama’s economic recovery program. The team will ensure that economic recovery funding is rapidly made available for transportation infrastructure projects and that project spending is monitored and transparent.

The team, known as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) team, is composed of officials from across the Department’s operating administrations and offices. The team is co-chaired by Lana Hurdle, deputy assistant secretary for budget and programs, and Joel Szabat, deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy.

“We created the TIGER team to make sure that DOT’s portion of recovery funding goes out to states and localities as quickly as possible in order to immediately create jobs and strengthen our economy and transportation systems,” Secretary LaHood said.

The team will identify and prioritize key highway, bridge, transit, rail, aviation and intermodal spending. The team also will develop reporting standards to accurately track the money as it is being spent and ensure that all accountability requirements are being met.

The Department’s chief economist and Performance Management Office will coordinate with the Office of Management and Budget and other White Office offices on the performance measures that will be used to track job creation and other indications of the impact of each infrastructure investment.