Air travel and rail transport were early examples of deregulation bringing huge benefits to consumers and industries. Yet automobility, air travel, and freight rail, are increasingly threatened with further regulation that will reduce their ability to transport goods and people. CEI opposes these attacks by arguing for greater freedom in mobility and opposing perverse transportation industry regulations.
Transportation Issue Areas
Featured Posts

News Release
EPA’s decision to allow California to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035 reversed after President Trump signs CRA resolution
California’s green light from the Environmental Protection Agency to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035 was revoked after Congress passed a Congressional Review Act (CRA)…

Blog
Clearing the tracks: CEI’s three-point blueprint to DOT deregulation
Background The Trump administration has made good on some of its promises of deregulation – namely with two executive orders from the beginning of this…

Blog
Senate pulls plug on California’s gas car ban
The US Senate on Thursday voted 51-46 for H.J. Res.88, a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval to repeal the Environmental Protection…
Search Posts
Blog
Surface Transportation Board Delays Consideration of Regulatory Reform Petition
Yesterday, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) published a decision on a March 2019 rulemaking petition from the Association from American Railroads (AAR). The AAR petition…
Trucks.com
Infrastructure Funding Looks Dead Until at Least 2020
Trucks.com cites Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on highway funding. “We have been skeptical since the beginning,” Marc Scribner, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise…
IBTTA
Opinion Leaders Educate And Build A Bigger Tent For Tolling
IBTTA cites CEI on infrastructure spending. In June, the Competitive Enterprise Institute pointed to the $140 billion Congress has spent to bail out the Highway…
Transportation Today
IBTTA Agrees With Infrastructure Report on Tolling
Transportation Today cites Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s recent report, Transforming Surface Transportation Reauthorization: A 21st Century Approach to Address America’s Greatest Infrastructure Challenge. The International…
Blog
Energy and Commerce Committee Holds Contentious Hearing on Trump Auto Rule
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on June 20th on the Trump administration’s Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) motor vehicle rule. The rule proposes to freeze Corporate Average…
International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association
IBTTA Applauds Competitive Enterprise Institute Report Calling On Lawmakers To Remove Restrictions On Interstate Tolling
The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association cites CEI’s report on transportation infrastructure, authored by Senior Fellow Marc Scribner. Today, Patrick D. Jones, Executive…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter to Oppose a Federal Gas Tax
On behalf of our organizations and the millions of American individuals, families, and business owners they represent, we urge you to focus on comprehensive reforms…
Blog
Electric Vehicle Tax Credits Not Popular with Americans: Poll
A recent survey conducted for the American Energy Alliance clearly shows that the public does not support congressional efforts to extend or expand federal tax credits for purchasers of…
Politico, Morning Transportation
Date Set For Next House Hearing on Boeing
Politico‘s Morning Transportation cites Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s infrastructure report. Even more ideas: Meanwhile, Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute on Monday urged lawmakers to…
Blog
Congress Should Authorize Longer Trailers When Reforming National Highway Policy
In 1982, when Congress designated the National Network—the approximately 200,000 miles of truck corridors that crisscross the U.S.—it also set a 28.5-foot minimum limit on tandem…
Blog
Remove Government Barriers to Promote Efficient Highway Investment
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute released my new report, “Transforming Surface Transportation Reauthorization: A 21st Century Approach to Address America’s Greatest Infrastructure Challenge.” In it, I…
Blog
Automakers to Trump: Keep Us Captive to California Bureaucrats
Seventeen automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and Toyota Motor North America sent a letter on 6th June to President Donald J. Trump urging him not to challenge California’s…
News Release
Report: Congress Needs a 21st Century Approach to Infrastructure Needs
Raising the federal fuel tax won’t adequately and fairly pay for future roadway infrastructure needs, argues a new Competitive Enterprise Institute report released today.
Study
Transforming Surface Transportation Reauthorization
The United States Interstate Highway System serves as the backbone of American commerce and personal travel. Funded as a pay-as-you-go basis largely through federal excise…
Blog
Federal Railroad Administration Withdraws Proposed ‘Featherbedding’ Train Crew Rule
Today, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released a draft notice indicating that it will be withdrawing a 2016 proposed rule that would have required trains…
Blog
Focus Ride-Hailing Policy on Consumer Benefits, Not Protecting Competitors
As we pointed out last year when New York City attacked Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing firms by imposing an interim supply cap, politicians fighting…
Blog
Boeing Pushes 100 Percent Tariffs on Airbus
Boeing, fresh off a victory in restoring the Export-Import Bank’s full lending authority, is floating the idea of a 100 percent tariff on Airbus aircraft…
Blog
Bloomberg Reporter Justin Bachman Gets Duped by TripAdvisor Front Group
I wrote back in November 2018 of the false, scurrilous, ad hominem attacks on Competitive Enterprise Institute Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith’s appointment as consumer representative…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition to Congress: No Electric Vehicle Tax Credit Expansion
We, the undersigned organizations, write to object to any effort to expand the current electric vehicle tax credit. While the tax credit is misguided, at…
Blog
CEI Leads Free-Market Coalition to Dispel Passenger Facility Charge Myths
Today, CEI and seven other free-market organizations sent a letter to members of Congress aimed at dispelling myths circulating about the airport passenger facility charge…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to Congress Dispelling PFC Myths
Dear Members of Congress, We write to you today to dispel myths surrounding the airport passenger facility charge (PFC).
Blog
Congressional Democratic Leaders Meet with President on Infrastructure Bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other congressional Democrats met with President Trump on April 30 to discuss an infrastructure package.
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Urging Surface Transportation Board to Withdraw Proposed Switching Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) led a coalition of 20 other free market organizations urging the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to withdraw a harmful…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to STB on Competitive Switching Rule
Dear Chairman Begeman, Vice Chairman Fuchs, and Member Oberman, We, the undersigned, wish to congratulate and welcome you to your appointments. The Surface Transportation Board…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Supporting DOT on California High-Speed Rail Funding
We, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of taxpayers nationwide, appreciate your leadership and support your efforts to de-obligate $929 million in federal grants not yet…
Eno Transportation Weekly
Airport Investments Discussed in House Transportation and Infrastructure Hearing
Eno Transportation Weekly cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s testimony on infastructure funding. Compromise arose both in the sense of considering a variety of revenue…
AASHTO Journal
House Ways and Means Committee Holds Infrastructure Funding Hearing
AASHTO Journal cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s testimony at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on infrastructure funding. In the future, Marc Scribner, a…
MarketWatch
Key Republican Raises Alarm About Hiking Corporate Taxes to Pay for Infrastructure Overhaul
MarketWatch cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on infrastructure spending. “There are very real infrastructure needs in the U.S., but they are not uniform…
Roll Call
5 Ways Congress May Try to Fix the Highway Trust Fund
Roll Call cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on mass transit. Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who will testify at Wednesday’s Ways…
Bloomberg BNA
Talking Cars Speaking Different Tongues May Make FCC Pick Winner
Bloomberg BNA cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on the NCTA’s request to allow unlicensed use of 5.9 GHz airwaves for Wi-Fi calls. Potential…
Federal News Network
Audio: Automatic Vehicles: Safer Than Humans?
Senior Fellow Marc Scribner joins the Federal News Network to discuss how automated vehicles will reduce the number of injuries and property damage caused by accidents…
Spokesman
Spokane Airport Executive Lobbies Congress for ‘User Fee’ Increase to $8.50 to Finance Improvements
Spokesman cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s participation in a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Krauter was joined at…
Comment
CEI Comments to the Surface Transportation Board in Support of AAR Petition
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments to the Surface Transportation Board (“STB”) in support of Association of American…
Blog
Department of Transportation Should Rescind Crew-Size ‘Featherbedding’ Proposal
Unions in the railroad industry have a long history of “featherbedding,” the pejorative term for the practice of creating pointless make-work jobs. Most infamous was…
Blog
User Fees, Rather than Tax Dollars, Can Promote Airport Efficiency and Lower Airfares
This morning, I testified before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives at a hearing titled, “The Cost of Doing…
Comment
Marc Scribner Testimony Before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure U.S. House of Representatives
Chairman DeFazio, Ranking Member Graves, and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: Marc Scribner Testifies Before House Ways and Means Committee
Senior Fellow Marc Scribner testifies before House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the nation's infrastructure needs.
Blog
Higher Taxes, Wasteful Spending Not Solutions to Infrastructure Problems
In recent years, there have been increasing calls to raise federal fuel excise tax rates in order to address what many have called an infrastructure…
Comment
Marc Scribner Testimony Before the Committee on Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives
Chairman Neal, Ranking Member Brady, and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is…
Products
Coalition for Future Mobility Letter on Federal AV legislation
Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader Schumer: Roughly two years ago, the Coalition for Future Mobility – a group…
Comment
Letter for the Record to the Senate Finance Committee on Senate Bill 252
Dear Chair Kelley and distinguished members of the Senate Finance Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to supplement the record of your hearing on Senate…
Trucks.com
Real-World Value of Truck Platooning Questioned as Support Wanes
Trucks.com cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on automated platooning. The Competitive Enterprise Institute shows 17 states have approved platooning in some form, according…
The Washington Examiner
Pressure to Get Self-Driving Cars on the Road
The Washington Examiner cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on the AV START Act. Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was…
Trucks.com
Truck-Only State Tolls Roil Industry That Favors Fuel-Tax Hike
Trucks.com cites CEI Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on alternatives to fuel tax increases: A mileage-based user fee and unlimited private activity bonds for…
Blog
California’s Gov. Newsom Slams Brakes on California Bullet Train
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on February 12th unexpectedly slammed the brakes on the state’s high-speed rail project. The project “as currently planned, would cost too…
Blog
Conservative Criticisms of Passenger Facility Charge Again Miss Mark
Our friends at the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) recently sent a letter to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in advance of a hearing…
GCN Tech
What’s Next for V2X Spectrum?
As the partial government shutdown began in late December, the Department of Transportation published a request for comments on how DOT should approach vehicle-to-everything communications. V2X refers…
Comment
CEI Comments to OST on Vehicle-to-Everything Communications
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response to…
Freight Waves
User Fee Plan Enters 2019 Highway Funding Debate
Freight Waves cited CEI’s coalition letter led by Senior Fellow Marc Scribner: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition in Support of Nationwide Road Usage Charge Pilot Program
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute sent a letter to Congress urging members to preserve and strengthen the users-pay/users-benefit highway funding principle and to establish a…