Federal Funding
Houston Planners Will Spend All Their Federal Air Quality Funding on Cars
It looks like the Houston region still has a long way to go in balancing the needs of cyclists and pedestrians with those of drivers. The region's Transportation Policy Council came down largely on the side of auto infrastructure Friday in deciding how to allocate tens of millions of dollars in federal funding. On the bright side, an all-out push from local cycling and pedestrian advocates successfully preserved a chunk of funding for biking and walking that had been under threat.
March 31, 2011
Strange Bedfellows Unite for Infrastructure Investment, Financing Tools
The “Tom and Rich Show” continued on Capitol Hill yesterday. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka joined up for yet another event to show that business and labor, which don’t agree on anything, agree on a major infusion of federal investment for infrastructure.
March 31, 2011
House Transportation Committee Rejects Obama’s 2012 Budget Request
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is having its say about the president’s ambitious – and unpaid-for – budget request for transportation.
March 22, 2011
House Passes Three-Week Budget Extension
The House just voted 271-158 to extend the FY2010 for three more weeks while the two houses of Congress try to reconcile their respective ideas about spending cuts. It wasn't a party-line vote: 54 Republicans voted against the resolution and 85 Democrats voted for it. The bill cuts $6 billion over its three-week life.
March 15, 2011
Cyclists Descend on Capitol Hill, Ask Lawmakers to Preserve Bike Funding
Every year, the cyclists that gather in Washington for the National Bike Summit meet with hundreds of Congressional offices to ask for expanded bike funding. This year, they’re just asking lawmakers not to cut it.
March 11, 2011
Boxer Pushes LaHood on Financing for Transportation
Senator Barbara Boxer got down to brass tacks on transportation funding in a committee hearing yesterday, even as DOT Secretary Ray LaHood remained vague on how to pay for the president's ambitious proposal. Boxer said she’s not in favor of raising the gas tax, but she’d like it to be indexed to inflation. “We don’t even know if the president would go that far with us,” she said, but clearly something needs to be done.
March 10, 2011
Senators Hammer LaHood for Specifics on Funding His Transpo Plan
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood played defense – and dodgeball – this morning as members of the Senate Budget Committee grilled him on how he proposed to pay for the administration’s new transportation agenda.
March 3, 2011
AASHTO: Government Shutdown Could Cost Transportation Sector $100M/Day
If the House, Senate, and President Obama don’t agree on a course of action by the end of this week, the U.S. will be left with no federal budget, and the government will shut down. Transit agencies and construction interests don't seem alarmed, but the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials estimates that a government shutdown would stop $100 million in transportation dollars a day from flowing into the national economy.
February 28, 2011
How Hard Will the Senate Fight Back Against House Spending Cuts?
Members of Congress worked all day Friday, until 4:42 Saturday morning, to finish voting on hundreds of amendments and, finally, the final HR 1 bill to set spending levels for the rest of 2011.
February 22, 2011
In Age of Budget Cuts, Why Are Billions of Federal Rail Dollars Going Unused?
If I told you there was a fantastic, $35 billion federal program to lend money for railroads to improve their infrastructure, you’d probably assume one of the following:
February 18, 2011