U.S. Senate
Live-Blogging the First Meeting of the Transportation Conference Committee
5:41 Adjourned. Thanks for following our live-blog coverage -- all 3,276 words of it.
May 8, 2012
Seven Questions as Transportation Bill Conference Gets Underway
The first meeting of the transportation bill conference committee is today at 3:00. (To familiarize yourself with the participants, see Ben's reports on the House and Senate conferees.) We'll be live-blogging it, beginning to end.
May 8, 2012
Getting to Know the Senate Conferees
The Senate unveiled its list of conference committee delegates yesterday to a widespread lack of surprise.
April 25, 2012
Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2012 Transportation Bill Senate Conferees
The Senate has designated the 14 members who will represent the upper chamber on the transportation bill conference committee. The House will designate its own conferees soon, and the entire group will be tasked with reconciling the differences between the Senate's two-year bill and the 90-day "dirty" extension passed by the House last week.
April 24, 2012
This Week: Conference Gladiators Could Be Named, Senate Budget Stalls
This week, the House and Senate are expected to name the people they’ll send to conference to come up with a new transportation bill. The Senate will be bringing its bipartisan bill; the House is bringing a bunch of poison pills. The president says he will veto anything with a Keystone pipeline approval in it, giving both sides the chance to say they’re putting Keystone before a massive infrastructure/jobs bill.
April 23, 2012
House GOP Tries to Horse-Trade Senate Bill For Keystone Pipeline
In another desperate attempt to push forward their fossil fuel agenda, House Republicans have indicated that even though they've been incapable of passing a transportation bill, they're willing to go to conference committee and pass the Senate bill. All the Senate Democrats have to do in return is approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
April 13, 2012
Federal Transpo Policy Entering New Era, Say NYC Officials. Now What?
It's a new era for federal transportation policy, say the top New York City Department of Transportation officials tracking action on Capitol Hill. We just don't know what kind of era it's going to be.
April 5, 2012
Live-Blogging the Senate Transportation Extension Debate & Vote
The House of Representatives passed a 90-day extension of transportation programs by a vote of 266-158 shortly before noon today. The Senate passed it soon after by an unrecorded voice vote, but only after several Democrats tried (unsuccessfully) to replace the extension's text with that of their own two-year reauthorization bill. The extension is now on its way to the President's desk to be signed into law, averting a shutdown. Live updates from the full Senate debate are below.
March 29, 2012
Pressure Mounts on House to Take Up Senate Bill. Does the House Care?
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Congressional Democrats, some Congressional Republicans, unions, politicians from New Jersey, Chicago and Louisiana -- they all have one message for the House of Representatives: Pass the Senate transportation bill.
March 28, 2012
How the House Transpo Extension Hurts the Senate’s Two-Year Bill
Congress has five days in which to pass an extension of transportation funding. That means there will be a flurry of activity on the Hill this week to avoid a shutdown of federal transportation programs on April 1. (It also means there will be a flurry of "April Fools" references directed by and at opposing political parties on the House and Senate floors.)
March 26, 2012