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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
Bipartisan Policy Center Proposes Major Redesign of Federal Funding
With the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee set to introduce its reauthorization bill the first week of July and the Senate EPW Committee already behind on its own timeline to introduce its own, think tanks and policy groups have a limited amount of time left to influence the process. The Bipartisan Policy Center got into the act yesterday with its report, “Performance Driven: Achieving Wiser Investment in Transportation.”
June 20, 2011
Poll: Republicans Support Transpo Policies to Avert Climate Change, Too
Judging from the current political discourse in Washington, you would guess we are a nation strongly divided on the issue of climate change. But you'd be wrong, according to a new poll from Yale University.
June 17, 2011
Fix-It-First Bill Introduced in Senate
Highway maintenance has been getting short shrift in state budgets, according to a recent report from Smart Growth America. But a bill introduced in the Senate today seeks to address the imbalance between road construction and maintenance.
June 16, 2011
House Transportation Committee Will Unveil Part of Transpo Bill Next Week
Correction: The initial post stated that the full transportation reauthorization will be unveiled next week. The post has been updated to reflect that only the rail portion will be released next week.
June 15, 2011
Ray LaHood Wants to Hear From Streetsblog Readers
Have a question for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood? He's all ears. He has been doing a series of video chats where he responds to questions from the public.
June 14, 2011
Fareed Zakaria: Republicans Should Embrace an Infrastructure Bank
Have you seen Fareed Zakaria's editorial in the Washington Post on Friday? It's pretty stunning. He begins with some pretty gloomy analysis of the country's economic trajectory and some bad news about unemployment and growth. And just when it seems like there's no hope and the country's going down the tubes, he suggests one shining beacon of hope: a national infrastructure bank, the "simplest way" to help unemployed workers -- "and the country."
June 13, 2011
One Way to Cure Congestion: Urban Abandonment
Jeff Wood at Reconnecting America attended the Congress for the New Urbanism's annual gathering in Madison last week, and he recently posted this short Q&A with CNU President John Norquist. It happens to be a pretty timely and snappy interview.
June 10, 2011