The former director of the Iowa D-O-T says he is “eager” to help rebuild and repair the nation’s highways. Paul Trombino has been nominated to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration and he was quizzed by members of a U.S. Senate committee.
Trombino promised to find ways to streamline the permit process for highway and bridge projects that get federal funding.
The top Democrat on the committee asked Trombino how he helped steer a 10-cent state gas tax increase through the Iowa legislature in 2015. Republican Joni Ernst, the Iowa Senator who’s a member of the committee, said it “would really be an uphill battle” to get a FEDERAL gas tax increase through congress.
But Trombino didn’t offer specific recommendations. He says those policy decisions will be made by Congress. Trombino worked for 17 years at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation before he became director of the IOWA D-O-T in 2011. Trombino left state government last year, at the end of November, to become president of a central Iowa engineering firm.
