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* Press release…
Today, Governor-elect JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton announced the formation and members of the transition’s Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee.
The committee is the tenth of several working groups of the transition made up of subject-matter experts who will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee will be chaired by Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Congressman Dan Lipinski, Congressman-elect Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, state Sen. Martin A. Sandoval, and state Rep. Jay Hoffman and consists of 45 members.
“Illinois’ role as a transportation hub for the nation is a critical component of our economy,” said Governor-elect JB Pritzker. “My administration will prioritize a comprehensive 21st Century Capital Bill to build the infrastructure we need to restore Illinois’ place as an economic leader.”
“The Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee will focus on the surface, rail, water, broadband and community infrastructure improvements that will benefit every corner of the state,” said Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton. “It is time to capitalize on the boundless potential of our state and move forward.”
“We may be in the 21st Century, but some parts of Illinois still don’t have access to broadband internet that businesses and entrepreneurs need to succeed,” said Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. “This committee will make sure the incoming administration can start building up our high-speed broadband infrastructure and make access throughout the entire state a priority.”
“Roads and bridges across Illinois are in desperate need of attention, and this committee will take a serious look at how to leverage federal dollars to repair our crumbling infrastructure,” said Congressman Dan Lipinski. “As Illinois’ senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I know investments in our roads, public transit, and airports pay dividends, and I’m ready to get to work.”
“Transportation is critically important to the country and to industry, and that’s why I campaigned on securing more federal funding for public transit,” said Congressman-elect Jesús “Chuy” Garcia. “Rebuilding our infrastructure, especially investing in public transit projects, is essential for urban economic development and to ensure minorities have access to jobs and services.”
“As the chair of the Senate Special Committee on Supplier Diversity, I work to ensure public and private sector institutions offer opportunities for business and job growth for minority-, women- and Veteran-owned businesses, and I’ll do the same on this transition committee,” said state Sen. Martin A. Sandoval. “This work will build on the incoming administration’s commitment to building a state government that is representative of the people of Illinois, and I can’t wait to get started.”
“Illinois hasn’t passed a comprehensive capital bill in almost a decade, so it’s time we looked at investing in horizontal and vertical infrastructure improvements that will help our state thrive,” said state Rep. Jay Hoffman. “I’m excited to get to work on this committee to start identifying the infrastructure needs of communities across Illinois and crafting a bipartisan plan to rebuild our state.”
RESTORING ILLINOIS’ INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Congresswoman Cheri Bustos co-chairs the transition’s Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee and represents Illinois’ 17th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bustos serves as a co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee and was just elected to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She also serves as a Senior Whip in the Democratic Caucus and on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Bustos helped lead The Broadband Connections for Rural Opportunities Act, which seeks to close the digital divide by awarding grants for rural broadband projects. She also worked with members of both parties to pass the first long-term highway bill in more than a decade.
Congressman Dan Lipinski co-chairs the transition’s Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee and represents Illinois’ 3rd district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lipinski is the most senior member from Illinois on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, serving on three subcommittees: Aviation; Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials; and Highways and Transit. During his first term, he secured $100 million in federal funding to initiate the CREATE rail modernization program, a public-private partnership that is easing congestion on the road and rails in northeastern Illinois. Over the past few years, he has authored important provisions in critical bills covering all aspects of transportation, including the long-term federal funding bill to fix our roads and bridges, the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, and the most recent FAA reauthorization.
Congressman-elect Jesús “Chuy” Garcia co-chairs the transition’s Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee and will represent Illinois’ 4th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garcia campaigned on securing more federal funding for public transit. He previously served as Commissioner for the 7th District on the Cook County Board, a legislative body that allocates the county’s $3.5 billion budget. He was named floor leader by Board President Toni Preckwinkle and helped enact legislation that protects low income families, Veterans, and people with disabilities.
State Senator Martin A. Sandoval co-chairs the transition’s Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee and represents Illinois’ 11th Senate district in the Illinois General Assembly. Since 2009, Sandoval has served as chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, where he has brought federal transportation dollars to Illinois, and a first-in-the-nation bipartisan Special Committee on Supplier Diversity. He has worked to leverage federal stimulus funds to repair bridges and roads and is working to expand public transportation systems such as Amtrak. Sandoval has also focused on developing high speed rail and bring much-needed infrastructure improvements to areas around the state.
State Representative Jay Hoffman co-chairs the transition’s Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee and represents Illinois’ 113th House district in the Illinois General Assembly. He serves as an assistant majority leader in the House and as the chair of the Labor and Commerce Committee. Hoffman worked on Illinois’ previous infrastructure bill and has fought for capital construction projects, bringing back much needed state funding to build new roads, schools and the new McKinley and Mississippi River Bridges in the past. Hoffman is a former prosecutor, law enforcement official, state legislator, small businessman and public policy advocate.
Ralph Affrunti, President, Chicago Building Trades
Jimmy Akintonde, President and CEO, UJAMAA Construction
Luis Arroyo, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
MarySue Barrett, President, Metropolitan Planning Council
Dave Bender, President and CEO, American Council of Engineering Companies
Tom Benigno, Chief of Staff, Office of Secretary of State Jesse White
Hardik Bhatt, Leader of Digital Government, Amazon Web Services
Tom Carper, Board Chair, Amtrak
Dorval Carter, President, Chicago Transit Authority
Leslie Darling, Executive Director, Chicago Infrastructure Trust
Kirk Dillard, Chair, Regional Transportation Authority
Rocky Donahue, Board Chair, Illinois State University
Clint Drury, Executive Director, West Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council
Catherine Dunlap, Technical Committee Chair, O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission
Marcus C. Evans Jr., State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
Mike Forde, Partner, Forde Law Offices
Ken Franklin, President, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308
David Glassman, President, Eastern Illinois University
Alan Golden, President, Northwestern Illinois Building Trades
Mike Jackson, Fellow, American Institute of Architects
Tom Kotarac, Vice President of Transportation and Infrastructure, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago
Kristi Lafleur, President and CEO, Ascend Infrastructure
Jack Lavin, President and CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Michael McDermott, Director of State Government Affairs, Verizon Communications
Wilbur Milhouse, Chair and CEO, Milhouse Engineering and Construction
Josina Morita, Commissioner, Metropolitan Reclamation District
Johnny Mullins, Senior VDC Engineering Manager, Lendlease US Construction and Development
Oscar Munoz, CEO, United Airlines
John Penn, Vice President and Midwest Regional Manager, Laborers’ International Union of
North AmericaMarc Poulos, Executive Director, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting
Gary Schafer, President, Launchways
Rebekah Scheinfeld, Manager, City of Chicago Department of Transportation
Smita Shah, CEO, SPAAN Tech
Ed Smith, CEO, Ullico
Ivan Solis, President, Hispanic American Construction Industry Association
Liisa Stark, Assistant Vice President for the Northern Region, Union Pacific
Mike Sturino, President and CEO, Illinois Road and Transportation Builders
Jason Tai, Principal, Tai Ginsburg and Associates
Don Villar, Secretary-Treasurer, Chicago Federation of Labor
Gilbert Villegas, Alderman, City of Chicago
Thoughts?
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:11 pm
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===Tom Benigno, Chief of Staff, Office of Secretary of State Jesse White===
This tells me that license plate fee hikes are on the table as a possible partial funding source.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:16 pm
I’d like to see a representative of the Active Transportation Alliance on the group.
Comment by Lt Guv Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:19 pm
“The Restoring Illinois’ Infrastructure Committee will focus on the surface…that will benefit every corner of the state,” said Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton. Yet once again a committee with little downstate representation. I hate to keep harping on this but maybe just one committee could include some of the people south of I-64 and more than one-two from central Illinois. sigh.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:22 pm
Hardik Bhatt? As in DOIT? ERP?
Comment by Smitty Irving Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:25 pm
Chicago, the unions, and various industry types are all well represented. Not so much local governments or municipalities. Hopefully Verizon, the CTA, the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association, etc., all know those rural needs well. But the academics made it!
Also, not much IDOT presence?
Comment by Liandro Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:26 pm
Happy to see the administration-to-be remembered to appoint an AMTRAK representative, but sorry to see that (from the committee’s composition) not a lot of attention is going to go to high speed rail. It would have been great to have a rep from
https://www.midwesthsr.org/
Comment by dbk Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:30 pm
I’m really shocked to not see Rockford people on this list. How about some folks from our airport? Or aerospace companies? Or shipping? It’s what we do, and I don’t get it.
Comment by Matthew Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:36 pm
I like seeing some telecom representation on their. Statewide IT upgrades are as important to growing businesses/jobs as repaving the roads.
Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:36 pm
Other than maybe MarySue Barrett I’m not seeing anyone that represents or advocates for users of infrastructure. I see plenty of people who build or manage.
Also, Rebekah Scheinfeld isn’t CDOT’s “manager,” she is the “Commissioner.”
Comment by Not It Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:38 pm
Did Amazon choose Hardik Bhatt to represent them, or did the Pritzker Team? Seems an odd choice considering…
https://capitolfax.com/2017/04/26/the-strange-case-of-that-71-million-for-doit/
https://www.sj-r.com/news/20170424/illinois-technology-chiefs-memberships-cost-208k
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:43 pm
The broadband expansion would be a quick win and a good booster for economic development across the entire state. Downstate and Western Illinois would benefit as much as Chicago. I’d like to see municipalities get the chance to run their own gigabit fiber to the home from a state-run backbone like ICN. The competition would be good for consumers and entrepreneurs. Currently the comms lobby has spent millions to shut that option out.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:47 pm
This is the first disappointing committee. Appointing Harik Bhatt,the dude who has wasted 100s of millions of dollars on ERP? Whyyyyy?
Dan Lipinski doesn’t add anything. Neither does Chuy. Feels like they felt compelled to add members of congrsss and squeezed them in here.
The size is insane. No way they can get anything productive done.
And there a lot of advocates, but few experts. All the things I was impressed by with the other committees (balance, focus, size) went out the window with this one.
Comment by LilLebowskiUrbanAchiever Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:48 pm
All meetings to take place on Metra’s BNSF line
Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:58 pm
Rep Lipinski has an engineering degree from Northwestern, and is a strong believer in quality infrastructure of all kinds. The composition of the committee is balanced, if a bit too big to be manageable.
Comment by Ares Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:58 pm
Serious question lots of people and lots of committees
Is there s time line? How often do they meet are they to give formal proposals? If so when? And are they subject to foia?
Comment by DuPage Saint Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:58 pm
Agree a bit with LLUC. This one’s BIG.
Guessing the Congresspeople are there to ensure federal $ makes its way to Illinois. And doesn’t Lipinski’s district have a whole bunch of train yards?
Comment by Left Leaner Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 1:04 pm
Jelly Belly sure likes his committees.
How does one get appointed? I’m feeling left out- like I’m the only person not yet on a committee. Waiting for the call…
Comment by Tequila Mockingbird Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 1:35 pm
NO ONE from Metra except their lobbyist Jason Tai? Why?
Comment by anon Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 1:45 pm
Infrastruction?
Comment by South of Sherman Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 1:48 pm
This is one where I would LOVE to see a small road contractor have a seat at the table. Not a trade council representing them, but just a small contractor that has to deal with all the b.s. to get public works projects done. And I agree with Liandro on the lack of local gov presence.
Comment by Shemp Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 2:09 pm
Connected infrastructure / smart infrastructure os going to be a big oart of the future. There really should be a telecom rep on this committee.
It’d be nice to see motorcycles represented on the committee as well especially given how much noise ABATE has raised about autonomous vehicles and the issues they pose to motorcyclists in Illinois.
Comment by Aim to Misbehave Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 2:16 pm
Don’t like the appointment of Bhatt…way to many questions about spending on the ERP program.
Comment by reddevil1 Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 2:18 pm
Most effective and most costly ‘Early Retirement Program’ ever rolled out. A few hundred mil here, a few hundred there…
Comment by ERP defined Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 3:01 pm
Good call on having lots of Congresscritters here.
We’ll need help from DC if we’re going to do an impactful capital/infrastructure plan.
Comment by Scott Fawell's Cellmate Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 3:02 pm
Are Jack Lavin and Kristi LaFleur always paired together?
Comment by LTSW Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 3:14 pm
Loaded with union hacks, step up to the trough folks.
Comment by Union No Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 3:31 pm
Scott Falwell-
You think divided government in DC is going to help? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard today.
Just like the last capital bill, we’ll be going it alone.
Comment by LilLebowskiUrbanAchiever Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 3:36 pm
Labor leaders, seriously Bhatt is a major
privatizer
and
outsourcer
The frontline is not going to be happy about this.
Again,
This is one of those times when the absence of a frontliner on the transition committee is really evident.
Any state worker would have immediately gone into a fit of….”Harkik Bhatt? Oh Hell no”
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 3:40 pm
It is interesting that there is no representation from the manufacturing sector on there, unless I am missing it. They would seemingly be one of the biggest consumers of Illinois’ infrastructure. I understand the political landscape.
Comment by 360 Degree TurnAround Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 4:14 pm
Pretty sure they meant the Rocky Donahue that is Interim Director of Pace Suburban Bus, but whatevs. These committees are ridiculous and will accomplish next to nothing.
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 5:19 pm
I find it interesting that there isn’t any downstate folks on this committee. The infrastructure problems down here are just as important, but then again Pritzker and most lawmakers forget we exist down here.
Comment by NoSurprise Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 5:21 pm
==- Lt Guv - Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 12:19 pm:
I’d like to see a representative of the Active Transportation Alliance on the group.==
Agreed. Is Josina Morita the only representative focused on water, sewage, and river systems?
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 5:22 pm
===there isn’t any downstate folks on this committee===
Your eyesight appears to be as bad as your grammar.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 5:30 pm
NO CMAP input ?
Comment by South Side Sam Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 8:20 pm
==NO CMAP input ?==
It’s possible 1-2 future CMAP board members may be in this group. But no current members.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 8:30 pm
Anon at 5:19: Mr. Donahue is also chair of ISU in addition to being the new E.D. of Pace.
However, your point is interesting because there are representatives of RTA, CTA, and Pace (if you include Rocky), but not Metra, nor downstate transit. The key towards funding for transit is to have downstate transit folks also included so it isn’t a Chicagoarea vs. downstate fight.
Comment by Just Me Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 8:36 pm
Honeybee -
Yours was the “polite” version …
Comment by Smitty Irving Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 8:36 pm
No one from passenger or freight rail labor orgs
Comment by pikes Tuesday, Dec 4, 18 @ 10:36 pm
Was former Senator Risinger unavailable?
Comment by Just Me Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:13 am
Every time one of these committees is announced someone complains about something. Nobody is on it from this town. Not enough downstate. Some group is represented that shouldn’t be. Get over it. I think some of you just need an excuse to whine about something.
Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 8:08 am
Counties, cities, and villages are on the front line of different infrastructure needs. I am referring to streets, bridges, viaducts, water utilities, stormwater drainage and more. There should be someone from the regional councils of government on this committee.
Comment by BJ Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:08 pm
@>>
The broadband expansion would be a quick win and a good booster for economic development across the entire state. Downstate and Western Illinois would benefit as much as Chicago. I’d like to see municipalities get the chance to run their own gigabit fiber to the home from a state-run backbone like ICN. The competition would be good for consumers and entrepreneurs. Currently the comms lobby has spent millions to shut that option out.
Comment by Hieronymus Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 5:24 pm
Rest of post: Amen. That would help keep at least some degree of net neutrality for some Illinoisans.
Comment by Hieronymus Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 6:30 pm