U.S. Senate

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.

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.

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.

Business and labor came together to make a rare show of unity today to push for a robust transportation reauthorization with adequate investment for infrastructure. And they spoke out loud and clear for a higher gas tax. Most surprising of all – it seemed that Senators were finally ready to have a mature discussion about it.

We at Streetsblog have been saying that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will be a key player in the transportation debate this session, counterbalancing the conservative House as they, together with the administration and the Senate Banking Committee, craft a six-year reauthorization. The EPW could play a key role in tempering House attempts to cut infrastructure spending to the bone and prioritize traditional highway projects over urban transit, intercity rail, or metropolitan planning. We've already seen debates within EPW on the role of bike facilities in an infrastructure bill.

As Chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, Barbara Boxer may be the single most important voice on the future of Obama administration's six-year transportation proposal. And yesterday, the California Democrat gave her qualified endorsement to the President's transformative plan.

The committees with jurisdiction over transportation are shrinking. In the Senate, committee membership is only going from 21 to 20. But the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is experiencing a much more significant belt-tightening, shrinking from a committee of 75 to just 59. Of those 59, 33 are Republicans and 26 are Democrats.

“We need to take care of this sooner than later,” Sen. Barbara Boxer said this morning in reference to a surface transportation reauthorization. “We can’t keep doing extension after extension.”

Senator Barbara Boxer told reporters today that she had an "excellent", “wonderful” meeting with Rep. John Mica (R-FL), the new chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She confirmed that they're working on a "longer-term" transportation bill and have come up with many points of agreement. We'll let you know more details about that meeting as we get them.