- PNC is proud to support Business Forward, where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(dramatic music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Ray LaHood, former Secretary of Transportation, congressman, and educator, like my wife.

So welcome, Ray.

- Thank you, Matt.

- I appreciate you coming on.

I recently had Brad McMillan on, and we kind of talked before the show, during the show, and after the show about a lot of things and how you've come back to Bradley and help so many different students and talking about what you've done in your career, what these young students can do in their careers.

And it's fun to see people like you, and it's not just you there's others, but to come back and actually know that when you see the kids at Bradley, that there is a bright future.

- Yeah, there's no question.

I'm proud to say I'm on my second tour of duty on the Bradley Board of Trustees.

I love Bradley.

I met my wife there.

We were both students.

We got married while we were students.

And you know, when I left DOT in 2013, it would've been very easy for me to stay in DC, but we made a commitment to come back to Peoria, where so many people have done so many good things for me, and it's kind of payback time in terms of trying to do things in the community that I think can be helpful and give back to the community the way that they allowed me an opportunity for many years of public service.

- Well, I mean, we appreciate it, and so do others.

And I talk to a lot of people that have retired and some Cat presidents and VPs and they still stay here.

- [Ray] Right.

- And which tells a lot about the community-- - [Ray] Sure.

- Not just Peoria, but Central Illinois.

- [Ray] Right.

- [Matt] There's so much here.

- Yeah, no question.

Fabulous community.

We raised our four children here, and Darin's still here.

Our other kids are gone.

But there's a lot to do, a lot to offer, and frankly, a lot of opportunities in Peoria.

- Yeah.

And we talk about, I had Larry Weinzimmer from Bradley on and we're talking about not just entrepreneurs but all of the good things happening with Peoria Next and all these companies that are coming in.

And there's a lot of things that people don't know, and hopefully, on this show, I've been having a lot of people like Shane Needham from Veloxity Labs and talking about, he came from Idaho to Peoria.

Then you have people that come for jobs like Brian Ray with PNC, they come from Ohio and other places.

And it's just refreshing to see that coming out of this pandemic that people want to be in Central Illinois.

- Over the last 35 years that I've been in public service, I've met a lot of people who moved here from somewhere else and not one of them ever said, "I regret moving to Peoria."

All of them said, "I never knew what a great community Peoria was, "good education for my kids, good opportunities for jobs, "good opportunities for doing a lot of fun things."

And Peoria is a fabulous community, and anyone that's ever moved here loves living here.

- Good restaurants.

- [Ray] Yeah.

- (laughs) So one of the other things we're talking about, and I find it pretty interesting in today's political climate is you're the one person I remember that was true bipartisanship.

I mean, you could go either way.

And I kind of don't understand in this day and age, and I wanted to get your take on it, why, and we don't need to talk people, but why is everything seems so divided, but back in the day, Bob Michel, and you, and others, even George W. Bush, and it just seemed like there was more of getting along than it was, Bob Dole, getting along than it is now, and it's frustrating.

- You know, Matt, I think there is a lot more bipartisanship that goes on that doesn't really get reported 'cause the national media wants to focus on things that divide us.

But the transportation bill, well, let me put it this way.

I do think when President Biden ran for president, he's someone trying to bring the country together.

I'm gonna try and get Congress to work together.

And he's done that pretty well.

The transportation bill, largest to pass in the history of the country, trillion-dollar bill, 17 Republicans in the Senate voted for it, and Republicans in the House voted for it.

Just in the last few weeks, the President has signed several bills that passed in a bipartisan way.

So there's some of that going on, not completely and not totally, but the truth is, Matt, it starts at the top.

It starts with the top leadership.

- Okay.

- Setting the example, reaching out, trying to make something happen.

- Mm-hmm.

- And it can't just be one phone call.

It takes time to develop these relationships.

And so I think it's happening, probably not as much as we would like.

It certainly is happening in our own community, that's for sure.

People work together very well in our community of all political persuasions and because it benefits the community.

- Yeah, and I think about that locally.

When you look at Bloomington, Peoria, Galesburg, all the areas in between, we do work together.

- [Ray] Totally.

- And I don't even think, like when I look at certain politicians, I don't put an R or a D next to 'em-- - [Ray] Right.

- Here in-- - [Ray] Right.

- But nationally, it's hard not to because everybody, media wise, just drills it and drives you nuts with it.

- They do.

And you know, Matt, the other thing is there's like five or six 24/7 cable news channels.

- [Matt] Yeah.

(chuckles) - And you know, they keep rebroadcasting things-- - [Matt] I agree.

- Over and over again, and eventually, people begin to believe what they're watching.

And so it's a little difficult, not in our own community, but nationally.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- And there are some good things happening, I think.

- Good, good.

So you talked about the importance of high speed rail for years.

And if you could explain to the average person why it's so important to have a high speed rail service, obviously, job creation, but what else is driving something like this?

'Cause this is not a short-term project.

This is a long-term vision.

- This is an economic development project, and what I mean by that is the investment that will be made to fix up the tracks and the investment that will be made to fix up the infrastructure from Peoria to Chicago, that's gonna create a lot of jobs.

- [Matt] Okay.

- A lot of opportunities for jobs.

And then you have, all along the corridor, you're gonna have small businesses because along the corridor, you're gonna have a stop in La Salle, Peru.

You're gonna have a stop-- - [Matt] I got you.

- At Starved Rock.

You're gonna have a stop at Morris.

You're gonna have a stop at Joliet.

Every one of those places are gonna have to have a train station, businesses, sandwich shops.

And these corridors, again, create jobs, create economic development opportunities.

They're really corridors of economic development.

So it's a win-win.

You not only get good transportation, get people out of their car, safe transportation, affordable transportation.

- [Matt] Fun.

- Fun, and you get the economic benefit that's created all along the corridor.

- Yeah, that's a good way of putting it because I was asked about it-- - [Ray] Right.

- And to be honest with you, I just wasn't as educated as I thought I was on it.

- [Ray] Right, right, right.

- And so that's why I wanted to talk to you about it.

And this may sound like a dumb question, but are railroad tracks owned by different companies?

I mean, does the state own the railroad, some of 'em?

Or how is that all-- - The tracks really are owned by the freight rail.

- [Matt] Freight rail, okay.

- There's four what they call class one freight rails.

Those are the big companies, BNSF, Union Pacific.

- [Matt] Oh, yeah.

- And, you know, Canadian.

These are the big companies.

They own the tracks.

And during the time that I was at DOT and we were implementing president Obama's vision for high speed rail, we worked with the freight rails for contracts to share the tracks.

- [Matt] Okay.

- And that's what'll have to happen here.

All along this corridor from Peoria to Chicago, those tracks are owned by freight rails, and some of them are being used by freight rails right now.

- Yeah, so logistically, there's a whole lot you have to talk about.

(chuckles) - A lot, a lot of negotiations have to go on.

- I bet.

So does Amtrak, I'm guessing they play a big part of this.

- A big role.

In Illinois and in every state where there's train service, it's managed and run by Amtrak.

So the state of Illinois has a contract with Amtrak and the state of Illinois puts in enormous amount of money.

Amtrak puts in money, and i.e., that's how we get train service around Illinois.

That's why, how we get train service from Chicago that stops in Normal where a lot of students-- - [Matt] Yeah.

- Get off and goes to Macomb, goes to Southern Illinois.

And the point is this, that this is not inexpensive, so you have to have a partnership between the federal government, the state government, and Amtrak.

But Amtrak is the carrier that will manage and run the trains, and we will be a part of their system.

And if you look at a map of Illinois, of train service, there's only one big community that doesn't have it.

Peoria.

- [Matt] Isn't that crazy?

- It's crazy.

So Rockford has train service.

And you look at all along that corridor that I mentioned, Chicago, Joliet, Normal, Macomb and-- - [Matt] Springfield.

- Springfield, and then onto Southern Illinois.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- To serve, you know, serve that area.

And those trains are loaded with students.

We did a survey, Matt, and it was a professional survey, and people were asked, if there was affordable train service, would you ride it?

95% of the people said they would.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- So we're armed with a good study.

We know what it's gonna cost, enormous amount of money.

And that's why when we made the announcement, I said the stars are aligned 'cause Congress passed a trillion-dollar transportation bill, $66 billion for rail.

- [Matt] Wow.

- And that's the money that we want to tap into to match with whatever Amtrak and the state can provide to get this service going.

- Okay, so when Congress passed this bill and when you look at something that's so big but so far out, because it's gonna take a long time, does, how does this strategy, so to speak, or this bill go on to the next administration and keep its legs underneath it and then potentially go on to the next administration?

- Yeah, the bill that passed, the trillion-dollar bill is a five-year bill.

So the money's not gonna be spent over the next year or two years.

It's gonna be spent over five years.

- [Matt] Okay.

- So that could intervene with another administration, or if Biden wins reelection, it would be during his second term.

And the other aspect of it that we already talked about, once the service is in place, Amtrak then will have the responsibility and the budget to operate the train line.

- Is it safe to say that it's to Chicago because it's still in the state of Illinois but you don't look at a Milwaukee or you don't look at a St. Louis 'cause they're in other states?

- No, because once you get to Chicago, you can get on another train to Milwaukee.

- [Matt] All right, all right.

- Or to, you know, a number-- - [Matt] Anywhere.

- You can go to Michigan, go to Detroit.

- [Matt] Right.

- A number.

You could go to the West Coast.

You could go to the East Coast.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- Again, all connected with Amtrak.

- Yeah.

And it's fun because I keep thinking to myself, how fun would that be to take my son to a Cubs game-- - [Ray] Sure.

Exactly.

- Or a White Sox game.

Yeah, so to switch gears here, so when you were in Congress, how is it different from now that Darin's in Congress?

Is there just a, how does it change, or is it just so, there's so much history that it's just really the same thing year after year?

I mean, I'm trying to get a feel for how you look at it today from when you were in it.

- Well, the issues aren't that much different.

- [Matt] All right.

- Similar issues, a lot of economic issues, a lot of economic development issues, a lot of issues around jobs and the economy and that kind of thing, which we dealt with during the 14 years that I was there.

But it's a different generation of leadership.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- When I was there, Newt Gingrich became Speaker.

Republicans came in the majority after being out of the majority for 40 years.

And you know, you've got, now you've got in leadership, particularly on the Democratic side, an older generation.

You're gonna see a much younger generation come in.

And on the Republican side, again, a much younger generation.

So some of these things are generational.

And I think the big difference, Matt, between my time, my 14 years, when I ran for Congress in '94, there really was no social media.

There were no cellphones.

- [Matt] Very true, very true.

- And everything today now revolves around, there were no six 24/7 cable news channels.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- And a lot of this stuff is generated by social media and the cable news channels.

And, you know, it's-- - [Matt] I hear ya.

- That part of it is different.

It really is.

- I guess that would be it.

So when you were Secretary of Transportation, and I'm obvious that safety's the number one issue when you look at every part of your job, but how did, what, on a typical day, you wake up in the morning, what did that look like?

Did you get a briefing of, like the President gets a briefing?

Or did you, like, how did you go into your job on a daily basis?

- You know, we were in a position where in '09, Obama wanted a strong transportation program to get people back to work.

The economy was terrible.

- [Matt] Right.

- It was worse than it is now.

And so he got an economic stimulus bill passed, but he also got 40, we got $48 billion that we had to spend in two years.

In that bill was 8 billion for high speed rail, which had never been funded at that level before.

So every day, we met as a team to talk about how we're gonna get the money out the door, where it's gonna be spent.

And in the four and a half years I was at DOT, I visited 18 countries looking at high speed rail.

I visited all 50 states, and I visited 225 cities.

And my point in saying that is-- - That's cool.

- We were out.

We were meeting with people who had the networks to get this money spent, to get these projects started.

And so my day really was spent a lot on the road and a lot working with governors and mayors and other elected officials to get these projects moving.

- So when you worked with these governors, and this is just kind of a personal interesting question, I think, did you just walk in and just know that the culture of that governor's office was way different than the other ones and you knew that this state was gonna struggle because of who was running it?

Did you have that feeling as a leader?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- [Ray] Yeah.

(chuckles) I always wondered that.

- And these governors knew that we had a boatload of money and that they had big, big needs that they needed to be filled, transportation needs.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- Now some of 'em didn't, you know, for example, the governor of Florida then, who was Rick Scott, who's now a US senator from Florida, he turned down $2.3 billion for rail.

And so we took that money and gave it to Jerry Brown, the governor of California, and they now have started to build a high speed rail line from San Francisco to LA.

So the point is we knew who the governors were that wanted to get the transportation problem solved.

We knew who the mayors were, and we just, we spent a lot of time with those people who wanted to make a difference.

- That's crazy because I was just thinking off of what you just said that, really, a lot of your projects were planting seeds for something that you probably weren't gonna be around for anyway.

- Exactly.

We didn't cut that many ribbons but-- - [Matt] (laughs) That's a good way of putting it.

- Yeah, we turned a lot of shovels of dirt to start the projects.

- That's neat.

- Yeah.

And then my successor came along and was there to cut the ribbons, so to speak.

- All right.

That's pretty neat.

So you reported straight to President Obama.

- [Ray] Mm-hmm.

- So did he call you up or did he text you or did he, I mean, how did that-- - You know, the way it worked is, and the way it really works at the White House is a cabinet member intersects with the Chief of Staff more than anybody else.

- [Matt] Okay.

- So Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama's first Chief of Staff, and I were very good friends 'cause we served in Congress together.

- [Matt] Right.

- He was in Chicago, I was in Peoria, and we became very good friends.

So I had a direct line to Rahm anytime I needed it, and if we were gonna, you know, be doing things.

And I knew what Obama wanted to get done, you know.

He made it clear.

He wanted this money to get out the door.

Let's put people to work.

Let's get high speed rail going.

Let's work with the governors and the mayors.

And that's what we did.

- Hmm.

So at times, were you summoned to the Oval Office and you had to report or not?

- No, not really.

A lot of this stuff is just done, you know, by phone.

And as a cabinet member going into the job, you really, you know what the President wants.

You know what his agenda is.

He's just coming off a campaign talking about a lot of different things, and so we knew.

It was pretty clear.

- Yeah.

And I think back, I actually took my family to Washington DC, and we got to go into your office there when you were in Congress.

There were a lot of pictures of President Bush there, George W and George H. And I know Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush.

President Bush has been here three times.

But you know, you had a very close relationship with him.

- [Matt] I did.

- And then a close relationship with Obama.

And I go, that goes back to my bipartisan piece.

- [Ray] Right, right, right.

- It's a pretty rare thing in this day and age to be able to, Rahm Emanuel.

- Right.

Yeah, the point is, Matt, that what the American people want and what people in Central Illinois want, they want problems solved.

They wanna get things done.

They want their representative, if it takes working with people on both sides of the aisle, which it does in Washington.

There's 435 in the House and a hundred in the Senate, and then you got the White House.

People, in order to get these big things done, you gotta have people working together.

And I served as a staffer for 17 and a half years, so I knew that if I was gonna be successful, it was not just with one party.

And you know, one of the things I say all the time is you get elected on a party label, Ray LaHood, a Republican running for Congress.

Once the election's over, you don't serve the party.

You serve the people.

I was not elected to serve the Republican party.

I was elected to serve the American people.

And when people said to me, "Well, how could you go to work for Obama," because I supported John McCain for president as a Republican, and my answer is I went to work to serve the American people.

- [Matt] That's a good way of putting it.

- Yup.

- Pretty cool stuff.

So a lot of times, when they think of Secretary of Transportation, you really just think of roads, especially around Illinois.

Driving around, the roads are not the best, but there are a million projects going on right now.

- [Ray] Yeah, yeah, there are.

- So that's a good thing.

But also, there's air, and waterways, and bridges and all that.

So when you look at like the aviation industry as an example, and you look at what you hear about the shortage of pilots, is that something that comes across your desk?

- [Ray] Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, there's a feeling there.

Some people are recommending, why don't you extend the age to 67 for a couple of years until there's enough-- - [Matt] Catch up.

- Pilots trained that you have more pilots.

And so I think there's a debate going on about that.

Anything that moves pretty much falls under DOT.

- [Matt] (laughs) Okay.

- Yeah.

Trains, planes, automobiles, buses-- - [Matt] Water.

- Transit.

Water, exactly.

- Yeah.

So when you would go to different places and survey a bridge, as an example, or you'd go with a governor and see these projects, did you go in and trust the governor and what they wanted for?

Did you have to go say, "If we're gonna replace this bridge at $500 million, "we need to do this," and you'd have your people go and check it out or you check it out?

- Yeah, no, no.

We had people on the ground.

But look at these governors.

They know their states.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- And mayors know their cities.

They know what they need.

And like I said, I visit a lotta, every state and a lot of cities, and what I found was very dedicated elected people that wanted to get things done.

- Yeah, they want to get things done but there's a lotta holdbacks, and it drives you nuts.

So I have five kids, you know that, you've seen 'em, and I have four daughters.

And the thing, when I think of everything that you've done, and I know you're a part of this, was distracted driving is something that you worry about as a dad.

But not just your own kids.

You worry about other things too.

- [Ray] Of course.

- And so it's one thing that I've just wondered.

Is there anything that we can do to stop all of this texting and everything while they're driving?

I worry to death about my own girls.

- Right.

The problem, Matt, is that we are completely attached to our cellphones.

We don't think we can live without 'em.

We don't think we can live without that phone call while we're driving the car.

Part of the answer is we need to train our young people when they're taking driver education.

You cannot use your cellphone when you're driving.

You just can't.

You're supposed to have both hands on the wheel.

- [Matt] Right.

(chuckles) - Number one, yeah.

- True, yeah.

- Yeah.

And let alone, most adults can't text on their own, let alone driving a car.

And so we need to start early.

We need to train them early.

We need to train them during driver education.

And then we need to persuade adults that they are not setting a good example when they have their kids in the car and they're on their cellphone.

There's no call that is too important that it can't wait until you pull over the side of the road or wait till you get to your destination.

- [Matt] Right.

- Yeah, we're gonna save a lot of lives if-- - [Matt] We need to.

- If we persuade people to do that.

- Right.

Do you still talk to either President Bush or Obama?

Do you ever-- - I haven't seen President Bush for a long time.

President Obama, sometimes when I'm in DC, I'll go over, he has an office there.

And so the last couple years, I've just been by his office just to visit and see what he's up to.

- All right.

What was the, politically, what was the best time of your life?

- Well, the best job I had was Secretary of Transportation 'cause we could get a lot of, we got a lot of good stuff done.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- Look it.

I love being in Congress, and I love being in the majority, and we did a lot of good in the community, and you know, really helped solve a lot of community problems.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- But when you're a cabinet secretary and you have the ability to work with a president to carry out an agenda, you can get a lot done.

- Well, I appreciate you coming on.

- [Ray] Thank you, Matt.

- I probably could have had you on for about two hours.

(Ray chuckles) But I appreciate you having on, Ray LaHood, former Secretary of Transportation.

I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of Business Forward.

(dramatic music) - Thank you for tuning in to Business Forward, brought to you by PNC.