Wyoming Department of Transportation (DOT) Director William T. Panos recently testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Panos spoke at the oversight hearing “Infrastructure Project Streamlining and Efficiency: Achieving Faster, Better, and Cheaper Results”. The hearing’s goal was to learn how to make infrastructure projects more efficient.
Panos worked as a construction program executive and as an environmental regulator before serving as Wyoming DOT director. Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) said Panos’ experience provided helpful information to the committee.
“I appear today to present a statement on behalf of my own department and also for the transportation departments of Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota,” Panos said.
Reforms can be made to use federal funds more effectively while still protecting public interests and the environment, Panos said. The first way this can be done is by expediting the environmental review process, which consists of rules created for populated states with congested roads and large metro areas should not apply to rural states. Other ways Panos discussed included providing states with more flexibility when it comes to Federal Highway Transportation Administration agreements with state departments of transportation, adding a waiver to federal requirements that would allow for deadline extension and encourage innovation, and removing regulations for the planning process.
Rural states face unique challenges, Panos said, including that citizens’ per capita contribution in these states is $319.47 compared to $111.45 in other states.