Ben Goldman

The House transportation bill will be marked up by the Transportation & Infrastructure committee tomorrow morning, and advocates are fighting for amendments that would improve the provisions for active transportation and transit.

John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, officially unveiled his committee's transportation bill, the "American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act," at a press conference outside the House wing of the Capitol this afternoon. (All 846 pages of bill text are here: [PDF])

All eyes are on the House side of Capitol Hill today in anticipation of the Republicans' grand unveiling of their American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act at 3:00 p.m. But last night, some enduring questions about the Senate's transportation bill finally got some answers. Senators Tim Johnson and Richard Shelby, respectively the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, released a summary of the Federal Public Transportation Act of 2012, providing a preliminary guide to how the Senate will treat transit [PDF].

One reason why Congress may be so willing to eliminate dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs is the persistent notion that biking and walking are limited to cities, and therefore of no concern to rural legislators. Setting aside for a moment the arguments supporting a federal interest in urban transportation, the notion that nobody bikes or walks in rural areas is outright false, as amply demonstrated in a new report from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

For the 112th Congress, the path to passing a new transportation bill has been full of starts and stops, partisan politics and low expectations. While Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently said he doesn't expect a multi-year bill to pass this Congress, livable streets advocates should still be on alert in the weeks ahead. Momentum is building behind bills in the House and Senate, and there are strong indications that the bills could advance quickly in the coming days.

There was no grand unveiling of the House's five-year transportation bill today, but a summary of the bill has been kicking around for a few days. While there aren't any hard numbers available yet, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act looks like a return to 1950s-style transportation policy. It is particularly unkind to transit and bike/ped programs, and to cities in general.

House’s 5-year Trans. Bill Won’t Be Unveiled Today After All, Maybe Tuesday (Politico) House Bill Threatens to Eliminate Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding (BikeLeague) Ray LaHood (Politico), Barbara Boxer (Hill) Praise Progress on Senate Bill Editorial: Bike Commuting Is Already Rolling, Even In Houston (Chronicle) Could Bicycle Highway Replace Planned Oregon Transit Line? (BikePortland) Mass Transit … Continued

If the Transportation Research Board annual meeting were a music festival, the headline act would have been yesterday's panel of six secretaries of transportation, including Ray LaHood (the incumbent) and Alan Boyd (the first to ever hold the post). As headliners go, they were a bit of a downer: They told a standing-room-only crowd that they're all pretty worried about America's ability to deliver the transportation policy the country needs.

There’s been plenty of buzz over the last few days surrounding Congress’s efforts to pass a multi-year transportation bill.

Federal Transportation Bill Moving in House (Trans. Issues Daily) Secretary LaHood Proposes Streamlining Transit Approvals (Cypress Times) High-Speed Rail for 80 Percent of Americans Is Still Goal (TranspoNation) Funding Transportation: Gas Tax vs. Tolls (WTOP) APTA Applauds State of the Union Despite Rail Snub (Hill) Accusations of Delay in Disclosing Chevy Volt Fires (NYT) Five … Continued