DOT Announces Freight Advisory Committee Meeting – 6-25-13

Today the Department of Transportation published a meeting notice in the Federal Register (78 FR 33888-33889) for the initial meeting of the newly formed National Freight Advisory Committee (NFAC).

Since this is the first meeting of NFAC the agenda is more than a little vague. The notice mentions the following topics that will be discussed:

• Representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation will provide an overview of MAP-21 freight provisions and an update of the Department's progress implementing them.

• The Committee will begin to develop a list of tasks to complete and prioritize those tasks for the Department to consider.

The agenda will be posted on the NFAC Web site in advance of the meeting. Interestingly that web site is not currently available to the public; you get an “Access denied” message when you attempt to access it. Hopefully that is because the site is still under development (which would have made an ‘Under Development’ message much friendlier) and not because someone is attempting to restrict access to this public entity.

DOT is soliciting public participation in this meeting. Limited spaces are available for public attendance. Advance registration (via email to freight@dot.gov) is thus recommended. Written comments on the agenda topics (if/when it becomes publicly available) may be addressed to the same email address (they are apparently not using the Federal eRulemaking Portal, so the written comments will not be readily available for public inspection). There is no mention of the meeting being web cast (please join the 21^st Century).