Federal Transportation Bill
Streetsblog LA
Frustration With Stop-Gap Transpo Funding Shows at DOT Town Hall
U.S.
DOT’s top leaders (save Secretary Ray LaHood) fielded questions about
the next long-term transportation bill this morning as part of a “town
hall” session at agency headquarters. The conference, the sixth and
final stop on a national listening tour, was billed as a chance to give
feedback about how the transportation bill should take shape. While
senior department staff adhered to the listening session format,
divulging few specifics about their current thinking, they did provide
a glimpse of the frustration over the ongoing lack of certainty for transportation funding.
July 15, 2010
Former U.S. DOT Chief on the Worst-Case Scenario: 4 Years of Extensions
To a certain extent, hope springs eternal in federal transportation
circles. Even as state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations
operate under the latest in a series of extensions of the 2005 law
that governs road, transit, and bike-ped spending, few are willing to
envision a future in which new legislation doesn't pass by next year.
April 19, 2010
Coming Soon to Popular Transport Stimulus Programs: Local Funding
Two of the most popular transportation programs in the Obama
administration's stimulus law, the $1.5 billion in competitive grants known as TIGER and the $8 billion high-speed rail
initiative, had an added feature that made them even more attractive to
cities and states: the federal funding awards would not require a local
match.
April 7, 2010
Would the New Senate Fuel Tax Deal a Death Blow to the Transport Bill?
Eight Democrats yesterday joined nearly the entire transportation universe, from road-builders to transit advocates, to warn the three Senate authors of a new climate bill against raising gas taxes without using the money for infrastructure. Their message, translated from the often impenetrable language of Washington: Imposing new fuel fees that are not routed to transport … Continued
April 6, 2010
8 Senate Dems Join Industry in a Gas-Tax Warning to Climate Bill’s Authors
As Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) prepare to unveil a new climate change measure that includes
a tax on motor fuels, eight of their colleagues are urging the trio not
to forget local transportation planning -- and warning that any new gas
tax should be used to help pay for a new federal infrastructure bill,
not redirected for other purposes.
April 6, 2010
What Happened to the Proposed ‘Transportation Tax’ on Wall Street?
For several weeks last fall, as members of the House infrastructure
committee pushed for passage of a new six-year federal transportation
bill as a strategy to rouse the economy from recession, a proposal to pay for the legislation with a small tax on oil futures trades attracted a healthy crop of Democratic cosponsors and some vocal pushback from Wall Street.
April 5, 2010
Could Gas-Tax Bonds Pay For the Next Federal Transportation Bill?
House infrastructure committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN), facing steep political odds
in his push to pass a new six-year federal transportation bill this
year, has begun to pitch an outside-the-box solution to the financing
shortfall that is still stalling congressional action: Treasury bonds.
March 31, 2010
Boxer Aims to Put TIGER-Type Program in Next Federal Transport Bill
During an otherwise-abbreviated
hearing yesterday, Senate environment committee chairman Barbara
Boxer (D-CA) joined the chorus of praise for the stimulus law's TIGER
program, declaring her intention to add a version of the
competitive infrastructure grants to the next long-term federal
transportation bill.
March 26, 2010
EPA Drops Data Before GOP Forces Shutdown of Transportation Hearing
The Senate environment panel today was forced to prematurely shutter
its latest hearing on the next long-term federal transportation bill
after Republicans invoked a rarely-used right to close down committee
work as part of their broader protest against the majority party's health care legislation.
March 25, 2010
Senate Health Bill Approved: What it Means for Transportation
After 14 months of drama, deal-making, and declarations of its demise, the health care legislation envisioned by President Obama and congressional Democrats finally cleared its biggest hurdle last night, with the House approving the Senate-passed measure on a 219-212 vote.
March 22, 2010