Commissioner Kathy Ruffalo-Farnsworth
Kathy Ruffalo-Farnsworth is a government affairs consultant who has had a broad, diverse, and bi-partisan career in public policy with 16 years of experience at both federal and state levels of government.
Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth has extensive knowledge of the legislative processes and understands the steps necessary to successfully draft, negotiate and pass critical legislation. She has strong working relationships with Members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives – including those Members in leadership positions – Committee staff directors and other key staff. In addition, she has worked extensively with a wide variety of private-sector businesses and trade associations and key individuals within the Executive Branch.
From 1989 to 1999, Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth served as a senior advisor to the United States Environment and Public Works Committee (Committee) – for then Chairman Senator Max Baucus – with the primary responsibility for developing, drafting and negotiating federal transportation policy. During that timeframe, she worked on three major pieces of transportation legislation – ISTEA of 1991; the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995; and TEA -21 of 1998. As a staff member to the Committee, Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth also had the opportunity to work on other issues, such as clean air, clean water, NEPA and environmental streamlining. She has maintained current relationships with key individuals within Congress and the Administration responsible for implementing and administering programs in each of these areas.
From 1999 to 2004, Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth was a Senior Policy Advisor to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne – currently the United States Secretary of the Interior. During her tenure with the Governor, Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth was responsible for developing state policy related to transportation, economic development, international trade, substance abuse, adult/juvenile corrections and law enforcement. In that position, she advised the Governor, Cabinet Members and the Legislature on policy matters and pending issues.
In 2004, Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth began a consulting business and after 6 months in the private sector working with private sector clients, Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth was recruited by the Committee leadership to return to Capitol Hill to work on the latest transportation reauthorization legislation. Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth returned and spent six months as a key drafter and negotiator of the final bill - SAFETEA-LU - which passed in July of 2005 and is the largest such bill in the nation's history at $286.4 billion. She has since returned to her consulting business.
She has a broad range of professional expertise – covering highway, transit, transportation safety, environmental and transportation tax/financing issues.
Ms. Ruffalo-Farnsworth is a 1989 graduate of Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences.
