New House Jobs Bill Dominated by Aid to Cities
Soon after the Senate signed off
yesterday on a $150 billion package of tax extenders and unemployment
benefits that was promoted as a job-creation measure -- a bill that
lacked dedicated new funding for transportation -- Democrats on the
House education and labor committee were releasing their own jobs legislation.
March 11, 2010
U.S. Transit Trips Hit 10.2B in 2009, With Light Rail Up in Nine Cities
(Photo: Model D Media) The nation’s transit systems hosted 10.2 billion trips last year, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reported yesterday. While that figure represents a 3.8 percent decline from 2008, APTA’s data showed light rail ridership rising in nine cities and the long-term increase in transit use continuing to outpace growth in population … Continued
March 10, 2010
Study: Clean-Car Subsidies Alone Can’t Meet White House’s Climate Goals
Government subsidies for hybrid and electric cars, while
"politically seductive," will fail to achieve the Obama
administration's national pollution-reduction goals if they are not
coupled with a significant increase in fuel prices, according to a new study by Harvard University researchers.
March 9, 2010
Dodd Vows to Pass Livability Bill Amid Skepticism From Rural Senators
Even as the Obama administration ramps up its work on a sustainability initiative that treats
transportation, housing, and energy efficiency as interconnected
aspects of development policy, the effort remains without an official
congressional authorization -- a situation that Senate Banking
Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) vowed to fix yesterday.
March 9, 2010
LaHood Faces Off With GOP Senator Over High-Speed Rail, Livability
When Cabinet secretaries appear in front of Congress' appropriations
committees, which control the annual budgets for each federal agency,
the proceedings tend to be dry affairs dominated by local concerns and
arcane fiscal debates.
March 5, 2010
House Passes Jobs Bill with Changes, Prompting New Senate Vote
The House has just begun voting on the Senate jobs bill, which includes a $20 billion reprieve for the nation's highway trust fund and an highway expansion of Build America Bonds -- but though the legislation is expected to pass, it won't be headed to the president's desk yet.
March 4, 2010
Senate Starts Work on New Transport Bill, With House Version as a Guide
The Senate today took its first steps towards voting on a new
long-term federal transportation bill, with environment committee
chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) vowing to take up a successor to the 2005 infrastructure law before 2011 and indicating she would use the House's already-introduced version as a framework.
March 4, 2010
Bunning Throws in the Towel, Congress Restores Transport Funding
Workers at the U.S. DOT and on transportation projects around the
country are back on the job today after Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) lost
his politically hazardous battle against a 30-day extension of federal infrastructure law and unemployment benefits.
March 3, 2010
Transportation Filibuster Update: Bunning Won’t Yield to Fellow GOPer
Federal infrastructure funding and many U.S. DOT workers remain in
limbo today as Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) continues his one-man filibuster
of legislation extending the 2005 transport law, turning himself into a
Democratic target and a poster child for Washington gridlock.
March 2, 2010
Could a New Kind of Fuel Tax Help Break the Senate Climate Deadlock?
Even before the Senate environment panel pushed through a GOP protest to approve
its climate change bill, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Joe Lieberman
(I-CT), and John Kerry (D-MA) were working behind the scenes on a
so-called "tripartisan" plan that can win enough votes in Congress' upper chamber to make nationwide emissions cuts a reality.
March 2, 2010