Ben Goldman

White House Threatens to Veto House Transportation Bill (Politico) Groups Line Up Against Mica’s Road-Building Plan (Orlando Sentinel) House Committee Sets Debate Rules, Gets Through 23 Amendments (Only 200+ to Go!) House Dems Seek Delay on Transportation Bill After Process Change (Hill) Salon Analyzes the Tea Party’s War on Cities Highway Bill Saga Continues for … Continued

The House Rules Committee is now considering the GOP's transportation proposal, deciding how it will be debated on the House floor this week. That means they'll be sifting through the several hundred amendments to the bill that have already been proposed, and decide how many of them -- if any -- will be voted on.

With more and more Republicans coming out against provisions of the House transportation bill, the GOP leadership has opted to split their massive bill into three parts to be debated and voted on separately, Politico reports. The thinking, as Larry Ehl writes, is that members will be allowed "to go on record voting 'yes' on sections they strongly support, and 'no' on sections they strongly oppose." One bill would deal with transportation reauthorization (including the Ways & Means Committee's transit "fix"), one with energy production, and one with federal pension reform (yes, all of that was included in the same bill until today).

CBO Says House Bill Would Bankrupt Highway Trust Fund (JOC) Rand Paul Puts Hold on Senate Transportation Bill (Politico) Speaker John Boehner’s Invitation to Gridlock (Chicago Tribune) House Bill Sends Seattle Transit Providers Into Cold Sweat (Seattle Times) Eric Cantor, Former Subway Rider, Defends Cuts to Transit (Capital) The Tea Party’s War on Mass Transit … Continued

President Obama has released his budget request for the 2013 fiscal year, which includes a proposed $476 billion investment in transportation over six years. High-speed rail, mass transit, and bridge repair would get a big boost under Obama's plan, which is paid for primarily by war savings as America's troop presence is drawn down in Afghanistan.

When the House Ways and Means Committee voted to divert all gas tax revenue away from transit projects, severing transit's only dedicated source of federal funds, they were essentially throwing transit riders under the bus.

Sac Bee: House GOP Throws Transit Under a Bus Seven Fatal Flaws in the House Highway Bill (Center for Amer. Progress) Alon Levy Takes a Closer Look at House’s Bad Bill Trucking and Railroad Industries Call Truce, Support House Bill (Bloomberg) White House Backs Senate Transpo Bill (Hill) America Has 40 Million McMansions That Nobody … Continued

The Senate picked the right day to make themselves look good by comparison.

Today Is T4America‘s National Call-In Day to Oppose House Transportation Bill It Gets Worse: House Bill Could Spell Credit Downgrade for Transit Agencies Everywhere (ProgRail) Civil Rights Coalition Joins Fight Against House Bill (Leadership Conference) And So Does the New York Times Editorial Page 2:00 p.m. Cloture Vote Today Begins Reauthorization Process in Full Senate … Continued

The Senate Finance Committee is currently marking up what lawmakers have christened the "Highway Investment, Job Creation and Economic Growth Act of 2012," the final component of the Senate's two-year transportation bill. This portion of the bill, put together by committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT), is responsible for the "pay-for" -- identifying approximately $13 billion in funding needed to align the bill's spending with its revenue. As of yesterday the committee had announced only a little more than $10 billion in "found" revenue.