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Streetsblog LA
House Jobs Bill Answers Some Key Transportation Questions
The $75 billion House jobs bill, expected to pass later today before the chamber adjourns for the holidays, includes $27.5 billion for roads and $8.4 billion for transit, largely mirroring this year's first economic stimulus law.
December 16, 2009
The Footnote to All Those Complaints About Tax Cuts as Stimulus
Transportation reformers and status quo-lovers alike smacked their
foreheads in frustration when the White House's first stimulus plan
lowballed infrastructure to make
room for tax breaks that had little demonstrable effect on job creation
-- particularly the $70 billion adjustment of the alternative minimum
tax (AMT).
December 15, 2009
The Missed Opportunity For an Urban Stimulus: Mayors ‘Were Ignored’
wo-thirds
of America's population, and more than three-quarters of its economic
productivity, come from major cities. So why did the Obama
administration's economic stimulus law end up giving metropolitan areas
the short end of the stick?
December 1, 2009
LaHood to Congress: It’s Time to Talk About a Gas Tax Increase
As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next
long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers going to have to
debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood said today.
November 30, 2009
A Warning From America’s Cities: The Recession Has Only Just Begun to Hit
President Obama may be optimistic about continued U.S. economic growth as 2009 ends, but the reality on the ground in urban America — which an estimated two-thirds of the population calls home — is undeniably, disturbingly bleak. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (Photo: PennLive) That was the message delivered today by two economists and a bipartisan … Continued
November 19, 2009
Dems, AFL-CIO Step Up Push for Infrastructure Spending as Job Creator
AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka today called for more investments in
infrastructure as one plank of a job creation proposal that he plans to
bring to the White House employment summit next month -- as
congressional Democrats continued jockeying over how and whether to
pursue and long-term transportation bill in the coming months.
November 17, 2009
To Limit Distracted Driving, Congress Leans Toward a Carrot-Stick Combo
Partisanship is a fact of life in Washington, often slowing down progress on issues from health care to climate change.
But when it comes to preventing the use of electronic devices behind
the wheel, a congressional consensus is emerging in favor of federal
action -- even as the extent of GOP support for a punitive approach
remains decidedly unclear.
November 2, 2009
At Senate Climate Hearings, Lots of Transport Talk and All Eyes on Baucus
Yesterday, the Senate environment committee held the first in a three-part marathon of hearings on its climate change legislation,
with supporters singling out the bill's investments in clean
transportation even as one senior Democrat notably withheld his support
from the measure.
October 28, 2009
GOP Senators Protest Evaluating the Climate Impacts of Transport Projects
The 40-year-old National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA),
which requires the federal government to evaluate the environmental
consequences of future projects, is a valuable tool for local residents
and green groups that work to defeat highway expansions -- but as Streetsblog L.A. noted earlier this year, NEPA can be an equally valuable tool for opponents of clean transportation projects.
October 26, 2009
Streetsblog Q&A: Bush DOT Chief Backs Transport Tech Funding
Former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who served for eight
years in George W. Bush's DOT, sat down with Streetsblog Capitol Hill
yesterday to urge that Congress add a dedicated funding stream of $1
billion each year for transportation technology to the next long-term
infrastructure bill.
October 9, 2009