House of Representatives
Oberstar’s Transportation Bill: The Early Word
Policy wonks across the capital are still poring over the 775-page bill released earlier today by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House transportation committee. But searching the legislation for the key topics being debated by transportation reformers reveals new details and raises new questions.
June 22, 2009
House GOPers Propose Filling Trust Fund With Stimulus Money
As their committee's leaders butted heads with the Obama administration, a group of Republicans on the House transportation panel proposed to fill the $7 billion hole in the nation's highway trust fund with unobligated money from the economic stimulus law.
June 19, 2009
Flashback: Is Obama Flipping on Highway Corruption Laws?
As Washington waits for the next federal transportation bill to emerge, Streetsblog Capitol Hill is taking a featured look at debates from the last congressional go-round that could impact the upcoming re-write. For today's installment, let's take a trip to New Jersey, circa late 2004.
June 15, 2009
Congress Agrees to Keep Transit Operating Aid in War Bill
House and Senate negotiators struck a deal last night on a $106 billion war spending bill that also gives cash-strapped transit agencies the ability to use 10 percent of their economic stimulus grants to pay operating costs.
June 12, 2009
Carnahan Steps Up Push For Federal Help With Transit Operating
While lawmakers maneuver to fill local transit agencies' operating budget gaps with economic stimulus cash, Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) is taking it a step further with a proposal that would make federal operating aid permanent -- and use it as an incentive to spur more state-level funding as well as emissions reductions.
June 11, 2009
When Will Oberstar’s Transportation Bill Drop? Place Your Bets Now
At first it was slated to emerge by June 1. Then its release was said to slip to this week. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) now plans to release his version of the six-year federal transportation bill by the end of the month, with a full House vote unlikely to come before Congress leaves for its annual August recess.
June 10, 2009
House Boosts Transpo and Housing Spending Levels By 25%
The House Appropriations Committee has just released its "302(b)s," the allocations that determine how much money can be spent by each of the dozen appropriations panels that supervise federal agency budgets.
June 9, 2009
GOP-ers and Dems Agree: Feds Need to Get Their Transpo Act Together
Reports on federal transportation policy -- like campaign fundraisers and lobbying groups -- seem to proliferate in Washington, most of them drawing a few days' worth of news coverage before fading from memory. (Remember the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission and the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission?)
June 9, 2009
Infrastructure Bank Plan Gaining Attention And Momentum
In today's New York Times, columnist Bob Herbert spotlights the congressional proposal for a National Infrastructure Development Bank that would issue bonds, make loans and create securities to help finance needed rebuilding projects around the country. As Herbert put it:
May 26, 2009