John Davis Porcari (born December 14, 1958) is an American government official who served as

United States deputy secretary of transportation The deputy secretary of transportation advises and assists the secretary of transportation in the supervision and direction of the Department of Transportation (DOT). The deputy secretary would succeed the secretary in his or her absence, sickness ...

and is currently serving as the Port Envoy to the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. He was nominated by the Obama administration in April 2009 and confirmed by the Senate on May 21, 2009. Porcari resigned from his position as Deputy Secretary on December 27, 2013.

Education

Porcari was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The univ ...

and a Master of Public Administration degree from the

State University of New York at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

Career

Porcari previously served as the Deputy Secretary of the

Maryland Department of Transportation The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) is an organization comprising five business units and one Authority: * Maryland Transportation Authority (Transportation Secretary serves as chairman of the Maryland Transportation Authority) * ...

in 1997 and 1998. He subsequently served as the secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation on two occasions: first between January 1999 and January 2003 for the administration of Governor

Parris Glendening Parris Nelson Glendening (born June 11, 1942) is an American politician and academic who served as the 59th Governor of Maryland from January 18, 1995, to January 15, 2003. Previously, he was the County Executive of Prince George's County, Mary ...

, and then again from January 2007 to June 2009 for the administration of Governor Martin O'Malley. In the intervening period, he served as the vice president for administrative affairs at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

Deputy secretary of transportation

Serving as deputy to Secretaries

Ray LaHood Raymond H. LaHood (born December 6, 1945) is an American politician who served as the 16th United States Secretary of Transportation from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the ...

and

Anthony Foxx Anthony Renard Foxx (born April 30, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of Transportation from 2013 to 2017. President Barack Obama nominated him in April 2013, and he was confirmed by a 100–0 v ...

, Porcari was instrumental in implementing department programs, including over $3 billion in

Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE), previously called Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD), and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), is a supplementary ...

(TIGER) grants (originating from the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...

) and USDOT's stringent Buy America Act provisions, in place to ensure transportation projects are built by American workers using domestic materials. In addition to serving as operations officer over USDOT's more than 55,000 employees, Deputy Secretary Porcari oversaw resolution on an array of programs and issues, including the vehicle return/rebate program

Cash-for-Clunkers The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), colloquially known as "cash for clunkers", was a $3 billion U.S. federal scrappage program intended to provide economic incentives to U.S. residents to purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle whe ...

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

's recall of 2.3 million vehicles due to unexpected acceleration, and implementation of the Congressional transportation legislation Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). As Deputy Secretary, Porcari has testified before Congress on multiple occasions, including seven hearings since January 2012 alone, on matters involving project delivery, the Next Generation Air Transportation System, drawdown from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, aviation and global positioning system coordination, and rebuilding in the aftermath of

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

. Following the mantra "there are no Republican potholes or Democratic potholes," In 2008, USDOT ranked last on the Partnership for Public Service’s Best Places to Work in Federal Government, and by his last week of service, the department rose to eighth. Additionally, not one of the Agency's subcomponents was listed among the study's rankings in 2009; in 2013 the Surface Transportation Board maintained its first-place ranking among small agencies, and the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

reached fifth place among the 300 subcomponent agencies, improving on its ninth-place ranking in 2012. Porcari's signature achievements at USDOT included implementation of

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's Executive Order 13604, an Administration effort to expedite project permitting, while delivering quality environmental outcomes. Major infrastructure projects such as replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge, realized significant permit process savings, reducing permit time from several years to just over 12 months. As a result, the project broke ground in December 2013. Porcari also led the department's work on major projects, including the $1.7 billion transformation of the

James Farley Post Office The James A. Farley Building is a mixed-use structure in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which formerly served as the city's main United States Postal Service (USPS) branch. Designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Beaux-Arts style, the structur ...

adjacent to

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

in midtown

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

to enhance transportation and develop mixed-use real estate and the construction of the planned $3.5 billion

New International Trade Crossing The Gordie Howe International Bridge (french: Pont International Gordie-Howe), known during development as the Detroit River International Crossing and the New International Trade Crossing, is a cable-stayed bridge, cable-stayed international ...

(NITC) bridge to connect Detroit and

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

, a major trade corridor that carries almost a quarter of the land trade between the United States and Canada. Porcari was the president of advisory services at

WSP USA WSP USA, formerly WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Brinckerhoff, is a multinational engineering and design firm with approximately 14,000 employees. WSP stands for Williams Sale Partnership. The firm operates in the fields of strategic con ...

until July 2020.

Biden administration

On August 27, 2021, Porcari was appointed port envoy to the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.

References

External links