DoT funds can't be used to match DoT grants.  So many rural transit operations as well as those focused on older adults and people with disabilities are run on a shoestring.  The ability to use DHHS-ACL funds, for example, as a match is extremely helpful and appropriate, since their clients benefit from the mobility services.

Steve Yaffe

Yaffe Mobility Consulting LLC

803-398-9100

www.YMobility.info


From: Marc Brenman <mbrenman001@comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 10:48 PM
To: Steve Yaffe <yaffe@ymobility.info>
Cc: TRB Health and Transportation <trbhealth@mailman.chrispy.net>; Kelly Rodgers <kelly@thinkstreetsmart.org>
Subject: Re: [TRBHealth] Re: National Institute of Climate Change and Health
 
I'm not familiar with the Coordinating Council on Access & Mobility. This however is key: "If supplied with Congressional teeth..." I don't know why the CCAM would need to do this: "show which non-DoT funding sources can be used to match DoT grants." DOT funding sources are not needed as matches to obtain DOT grants. That would be duplicative. But after my time in the feds (and nine years at USDOT).

I disagree that the National Security Council and the Director of National Intelligence offer positive examples. The 11 or 19 or 21 national security agencies (depending on how one counts them) sometimes work together and sometimes not. Since 9/11 they haven't been faced with a challenge that would require them to work together robustly. They're still largely siloed, and don't like sharing information, especially under the Trump Administration, since he was leaking highly secure information to Russia. The various agencies differ greatly; for example, the CIA engaged in torture, and FBI agents on scene objected strongly; torture is not in the FBI's ethos. Both the CIA and Special Forces Command maintain armed operatives abroad on spooky missions. Both CIA and the Air Force run armed drone programs. The Director of National Intelligence doesn't have hire/fire authority over the other agencies. Etc. Congressional oversight over the Intel agencies is weak; witness the massive domestic spying imbroglio, seemingly known to Sen. Feinstein and the rest of the Senate Intel Committee for years before word leaked out due to Edward Snowden. The FISA Court operates in secret and without any of the normal due process protections found elsewhere in American justice. NSA, DIA, SoCom, Natl Geographic Intel Agency are all run by military generals, who care not at all about the agencies run by civilians. After Snowden leaked important NSA materials, the other agencies thanked the gods that their systems were not tightly linked with NSA, so that their systems weren't compromised.

> On 11/25/2020 7:29 PM Steve Yaffe <yaffe@ymobility.info> wrote:
>
> National Security Council and the Director of National Intelligence offer positive examples.
>
> I hope that Biden continues CCAM - the Coordinating Council on Access & Mobility. They’ve produced a funding braiding guide to show which non-DoT funding sources can be used to match DoT grants. They are 1/3rd through describing the 120 federal programs subsidizing rides. If supplied with Congressional teeth, they can offer a model to standardize the reporting structure for these programs.  Common objective is to provide more rides within budgetary resources.
>
> Sent from Steve Yaffe’s iPhone
>
> > On Nov 25, 2020, at 10:17 PM, Marc Brenman <mbrenman001@comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > I've worked on a number of federal interagency task forces and Presidential commissions, and they're pretty generally worthless. One sits in interminable meetings wondering A) Why am I here? B) What's come out of this meeting? and C) What will this commission/task force accomplish?
> > Marc Brenman
> > Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities
> > White House Commission on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders
> > Interagency Task Force on Education of Native Americans
> > Interagency Task Force on Development of a Human Services Vehicle
> > Department of Justice/Interagency Task Force on Limited English Proficiency
> > EPA/Interagency Task Force on Environmental Justice
> > Post 9/11 Tiger Team to set up the Transportation Security Administration (this one actually accomplished something)
> > Interagency Task Force on Holocaust Remembrance (this one managed to put on one very good event a year)
> > Etc. 
> >
> >> On 11/25/2020 6:38 PM Steve Yaffe <yaffe@ymobility.info> wrote:
> >>
> >> Climate Change is an infrastructure issue requiring cross-agency coordination. Infrastructure includes health facilities, roads, and utilities - especially water. While John Kerry will focus on international aspects of health, the rumor is that a domestic counterpart will also be appointed at the cabinet level. Such an appointment is very necessary, to lead an interdepartmental council focused on the broader aspects of climate change to infrastructure.
> >>
> >> Steve Yaffe
> >> Yaffe Mobility Consulting LLC
> >> 803-398-9100
> >> www.YMobility.info
> >> ------------------------------
> >> From: Marc Brenman <mbrenman001@comcast.net>
> >> Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 2:21 PM
> >> To: TRB Health and Transportation <trbhealth@mailman.chrispy.net>; Kelly Rodgers <kelly@thinkstreetsmart.org>
> >> Subject: [TRBHealth] Re: National Institute of Climate Change and Health
> >> Interesting points, but isn't a great deal of money already being spent on studying these issues, by advocacy groups, think tanks, universities, governments, and individuals? Plus, one would think that Biden appointing John Kerry to be climate change ambassador on the National Security Council would help draw attention and resources to the issues.
> >> Marc Brenman
> >> mbrenman001@comcast.net
> >> Author of Planning as if People Matter: Governing for Social Equity, with Tom Sanchez, Island Press
> >>
> >>>> On 11/25/2020 7:26 AM Kelly Rodgers <kelly@thinkstreetsmart.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> FYI, opinion penned by Howard Frumkin and Richard Jackson
> >>>
> >>> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-a-national-institute-of-climate-change-and-health/
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>> Kelly Rodgers
> >>> Executive Director, Streetsmart (http://welcome.thinkstreetsmart.org/)
> >>> kelly@thinkstreetsmart.org
> >>> 503.442.7165Portland, OR
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Please note I am working in Pacific Standard Time.
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>>
> >>> To connect with committee visit: https://trbhealth.org
> >> You received this because you are subscribed to the mailing list maintained by the TRB Health committee (AME70). To unsubscribe, learn more about the list or visit the archives see https://mailman.chrispy.net/postorius/lists/trbhealth.mailman.chrispy.net/
> >>
> >> To connect with committee visit: https://trbhealth.org
> >>
> >> You received this because you are subscribed to the mailing list maintained by the TRB Health committee (AME70). To unsubscribe, learn more about the list or visit the archives see https://mailman.chrispy.net/postorius/lists/trbhealth.mailman.chrispy.net/
> >>
> >> To connect with committee visit: https://trbhealth.org