Subject: Fw: Next step
From: "Hilary Rosen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 17:12:21 -0400

Oiy

________________________________
From: Virginia Verdeja <[email-masked]>
To: Hilary Rosen; Alex Slater; Nell McGarity; Singham, Shanker A. <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>; Jitendra Tomar <[email-masked]>
Sent: Sat Oct 02 16:16:12 2010
Subject: Next step

As promised, I am enclosing an explanation of the facts in laymen’s terms so that we can all understand how big this issue may be.  I think, once you read this you can see why we are excited about it.
Please let me know if you need any clarification on the issues.
We are ready to go on the offensive.  First thing should be making Carter aware that, based on the content of yesterday’s FTA letter, we think we can force FTA to order WMATA to cancel the $1.4 billion Kawasaki contract and take a huge political hit OR exonerate CAF in the Houston matter.  We need to do this first thing Monday, Tomar and I are attending an APTA Conference and it would be the ideal setting to let the cat out of the bag.

There are 7 facts that must be clearly understood in order to grasp the significance of this latest development:

 1.  In all projects involving FTA funding, Car Builders are asked to either:
    *   Certify that they will comply with Buy America, or
    *   Certify that they will not comply with Buy America
 2.  According to FTA Rules, once a Car Builder certifies one way or the other, they can not change their certification.  (See highlight in attached “FTA Rule-Can’t Change Certification.pdf”).
 3.  This rule is very important because if a Car Builder certifies that it will comply with Buy America and wins the contract, it would be unfair to the other bidders if that Car Builder were allowed to change its certification.  The basis for the competition would change
 4.  In Dorval Carter’s letter to CAF yesterday (October 1, 2010), on page 3 he says that the reason FTA was justified in meeting with WMATA/Kawasaki is that Kawasaki certified that they would not comply with Buy America and therefore were eligible to discuss a waiver. (See highlight in attached “Carter Letter to CAF.pdf”)
 5.  In Dorval Carter’s letter to WMATA on July 23, 2010, he says that Kawasaki had certified that they would comply with Buy America and therefore would not need a waiver. (See highlight in attached “Carter Letter to WMATA.pdf”)
 6.  If Dorval Carter is telling the truth in the CAF letter, then Kawasaki changed its certification at the 11th hour which is against FTA rules and unfair to the other bidders.  This would require the contract to be rebid.  FTA knows that Bombardier and Alstom would be quick join the fray if they smelled blood in the WMATA/Kawasaki contract.
 7.  If Dorval Carter is lying in the CAF letter, then this yet another instance of FTA attempting to apply the law differently in 2 similar projects.  The difference here is that the evidence is in his own hand (not ours) and he has liberally distributed the letter on the Hill and beyond making a retraction difficult.

I’m getting on a flight to Dallas/San Antonio and will try to call from Dallas in 3 or 4 hours.

Best,

Virginia Verdeja
Vice President, Sales|CAF USA
202-326-7401(O) | 202-905-5950 (C) | [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
1401 K Street NW, Suite 1003, Washington, DC 20005