Press release

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Tracy Munford
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Nationally Recognized Advocate Calls for Federal Transportation Corps

CSS’ David Jones Challenges Congress to Support Disconnected Young Adults

New York, NY, February 11, 2008 -- David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), called for the creation of a national Transportation Corps during remarks delivered today at The Corps Network’s annual Forum in Washington, D.C.  His presentation came in the aftermath of House and Senate hearings on the report of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The commission’s report precedes the 2009 reauthorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFE-TEA).

CSS, a 160 year old institution that has made combating poverty its central mission, has launched a major campaign to address the crisis of young adults, age 16 to 24, who are out of school or out of work; so-called “disconnected youth.” The agency’s focus is rooted in its research that has revealed that as many as 200,000 young people in New York are disconnected. Various national estimates have put the number in the neighborhood of five million. CSS has joined forces with the Washington, DC based Corps Network to call upon Congress and the White House to make disconnected youth a national policy priority.

During his remarks at the Corps Network Forum David Jones announced, “We have already begun to develop a proposal for a large Transportation Corps, housed in the Department of Transportation, to repair and build our nation’s transportation infrastructure.”

The idea of a federal Transportation Corps was first raised by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in a meeting with David Jones. The congressman felt, and Jones agreed, that given the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota it had become evident that attention would be turned to transportation infrastructure. Rep. Nadler challenged CSS to develop an idea to connect the need for a large scale workforce to take on these projects and the need to train young adults and give them an opportunity to enter the labor market. 

Jones noted, “We see a perfect nexus between the need to train and make job ready disconnected youth and the demand for wide scale infrastructure improvements.”

Last year, as part of its “Working for Change” monthly policy forum on Capitol Hill, CSS invited former Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater to share his thoughts on the creation of a Transportation Corps. Mr. Slater noted that such a program would most likely have minimal budgetary impact but yield tremendous benefits in the form of newly trained and employed workers, and a larger workforce to meet the challenge of repairing and building the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

“The scale of the challenge,” added Jones, “requires a workforce of equal magnitude, and we have millions of young people that can be trained and prepared to work in jobs that offer a good wage and benefits, and that will ultimately not only lead to physical improvements but infuse dollars back into our economy.”

CSS is currently working with The Corps Network to develop legislation to create the federal Transportation Corps and will be actively engaging Members of Congress for their support.

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