House of Representatives

Update 3:35 p.m.: Transportation Committee staff says Mica has confirmed what he meant: "He was referring to the share. Keep in mind that we have no numbers or details for a bill yet -- the hearing process is not yet finished and we have not drafted a bill. He was simply speculating at this point."

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is having its say about the president’s ambitious – and unpaid-for – budget request for transportation.

According to a Transportation Committee staffer, a tentative schedule for the previously postponed field hearings is taking shape. Three hearings were postponed last month when debate ran long (until 4:30 a.m., in fact) on H.R.1, the house bill that cut $61 billion from the FY2011 budget.

Transit officials spent the day on Capitol Hill yesterday, meeting with Congressional offices as part of the American Public Transportation Association's legislative conference.

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.

This morning, House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica told transit professionals gathered at the American Public Transportation Association’s legislative conference that he’s still hoping to pass a bill out of the House by May in order to get it signed before September 30, when the current extension of SAFETEA-LU expires. “It’ll be very difficult after that,” he said. “Because of the presidential ‘happy season,’ major legislation sometimes gets left behind.”

President Obama's proposed high speed rail initiative would have the US embarking on the biggest infrastructure project since the interstate highway system. And while the significance of this effort -- and the need for more sustainable transportation options -- may be lost on a few cranky governors, it is not going unnoticed by the private sector. Indeed, while governors in Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio have made hay about high-speed rail being a "boondoggle" that will cost their states millions, private investors at home and abroad are lining up to cash in.

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.

“How many people are stuck in traffic on their way to ride a stationary bike in a health club?”