Lawmakers Reject House Starvation Levels For Transportation
A small but bipartisan group of lawmakers today sent a letter to the leaders of the House Transportation Committee, urging them to act quickly to pass a bill with adequate funding to meet the country’s needs -- “higher than or at least equal to the current funding level.”
July 7, 2011
Finally: Rustlings of a Reauthorization
First, the House and Senate pledged they'd have a bill marked up by Memorial Day. Then it was definitely going to come in June. (One staffer even told me that they were still planning on it coming "in the spring," so it would be before the summer solstice -- June 21.) But it looks like we might finally get a first glimpse of the fight ahead.
July 6, 2011
TIGER III Will Grant $527 Million For Innovative Transportation Projects
It’s TIGER III time. The first round was $1.5 billion. The second round was $600 million. And now, get ready for round three. After surviving countless threats by budget-cutting Republicans in Congress, TIGER is back, granting $527 million for innovative transportation projects.
June 30, 2011
Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood Answers Streetsblog Readers’ Questions
Last month, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood invited Streetsblog readers to submit questions for a Q&A installment on his blog, Fast Lane. Here are his answers. (For maximum effect, picture the secretary delivering these remarks while standing on a table.)
June 30, 2011
Stimulus-Backed Programs Struggle to Stay Alive After Funds Run Out
In an old supermarket space in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, a diverse community of bicycle aficionados are getting greasy. Young and old, Latino and white, they are truing wheels and replacing cables and adjusting brakes in L.A.’s newest, and completely unplanned, bike co-op.
June 30, 2011
Feds. Release New Starts Funding List Without NY/NJ Tunnel
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood yesterday announced $1.58 billion in New Starts grants that will fund 27 transit projects around the country. The only major difference between this list and the list of proposed projects that came out in February 2010 is the glaring absence of the ARC tunnel project that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie unceremoniously axed last year.
June 29, 2011
Rumor Mill: House Leadership Hostile to Transpo Reauthorization
A few weeks ago, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor published his list of bills the House will attempt to get through before the August recess. The transportation reauthorization was not among them.
June 28, 2011
Expect Two (Radically Different) Reauthorization Proposals Soon
The Environment and Public Works Committee is getting ready to introduce their transportation reauthorization bill, according to reports by the Journal of Commerce. The committee has, shrewdly, worked closely with Finance Committee Chair (and EPW leader) Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) on a way to pay for the bill, in order to avoid a situation like the one the administration found itself in: introducing an ambitious bill with no chance of passage.
June 24, 2011
25 Senators Demand Robust Transit Funding, But Not Boxer or Feinstein
In a letter to Finance Committee leaders [PDF], 25 senators today urged adequate funding for mass transit in the next transportation authorization bill.
June 23, 2011
Bike-Ped Defunding Proposal Sparks Mutiny in Mica’s Home District
The residents of Florida's 7th Congressional District must contend with some of the most dangerous pedestrian crossings in the country. And it's beginning to sound like they're tired of it.
June 22, 2011