Federal Funding
What’s Lost When Transportation Enhancements Becomes “CMAQ-AA”?
This month’s bipartisan deal on the MAP-21 transportation bill in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hinged on a compromise to make major changes to the popular and successful Transportation Enhancements (TE) program, which primarily funds projects for biking and walking. The final deal eliminates dedicated funding for TE, instead making a smaller amount of money available for funding bike/ped -- and a host of other activities --under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program’s “Additional Activities” category (CMAQ-AA).
November 29, 2011
2012 Transpo Budget: Sustainable Communities and HSR Out, TIGER In
Remember those radically different appropriations bills passed by the House and the Senate? And how I said they’d never come together, and they probably would never pass a 2012 budget anyway because all Congress ever does anymore is extend previous budgets because they can’t agree on anything?
November 16, 2011
Senate’s Draft Transpo Bill Ends Earmarks But Weakens Bike-Ped Programs
Last Friday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its draft transportation reauthorization bill. With the GOP-controlled House contemplating a national transportation policy designed for maximum fossil fuel consumption, the best opportunities for reform reside in the Senate.
November 7, 2011
Two Infrastructure Jobs Bills Die in Senate
Two competing versions of a transportation-related job creation bill went down yesterday in the Senate. The first, the Rebuild America Jobs Act (S.1769), was a Democratic proposal, modeled on President Obama's job creation bill, to invest $50 billion for infrastructure and another $10 billion as seed money to create a new national infrastructure bank.
November 4, 2011
Today: Senate Debates Infra Bank, Transpo Funding, Regulations, and More
This morning, the Senate is debating two transportation-related bills: the Rebuild America Jobs Act (S.1769) and the Long-Term Surface Transportation Extension Act (S.1786).
November 3, 2011
How Will the House Answer the Senate’s Transportation Funding Bill?
The full Senate passed a major appropriations bill yesterday, including funding levels for transportation and housing. The Senate put the kibosh on Sen. Rand Paul's attempt to strip bike/ped funding from the federal transportation program, as we reported yesterday. Here's the lowdown on the bill as a whole.
November 2, 2011
Bike/Ped Funding Safe as Senate Rejects Rand Paul’s Amendment
Bike/ped funding is pitching a perfect game in the Senate after Republicans swung (and missed) at the popular Transportation Enhancements program for the third time in two months. The final strike came this morning, when Kentucky Republican Rand Paul's amendment to divert all TE funds to bridge repair failed spectacularly, garnering only 38 votes in favor, with 60 senators voting against.
November 1, 2011
Why Create an Infrastructure Bank When We Could Just Expand TIFIA?
There’s been a lot of adulation heaped upon the TIFIA loan program lately. Both houses of Congress are ready to increase funding for the program nine times over, from $100 million to $1 billion a year – despite warnings from outside groups that there may not be enough eligible projects to use up all that money.
October 28, 2011
Strike Three: Another Senator Takes Another Swipe At Bike-Ped Funding
Last month, the Senate's notorious vote-blocker, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, tried to obstruct Senate process until they voted on his measure to take bike/ped funding out of the transportation bill. He failed.
October 27, 2011
Even the Godfather of Rail~Volution Wouldn’t Raise the Gas Tax Right Now
At Rail~Volution yesterday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) -- also known as the godfather of the “rail~volution” -- said even he wouldn’t raise the gas tax right now.
October 19, 2011