Highway trust fund
Debt Deal Could Mean More Painful Cuts for Transportation
The House and Senate are getting close to voting on a deal, reached over the weekend, to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending.
August 1, 2011
Rumor Mill: House Leadership Hostile to Transpo Reauthorization
A few weeks ago, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor published his list of bills the House will attempt to get through before the August recess. The transportation reauthorization was not among them.
June 28, 2011
Expect Two (Radically Different) Reauthorization Proposals Soon
The Environment and Public Works Committee is getting ready to introduce their transportation reauthorization bill, according to reports by the Journal of Commerce. The committee has, shrewdly, worked closely with Finance Committee Chair (and EPW leader) Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) on a way to pay for the bill, in order to avoid a situation like the one the administration found itself in: introducing an ambitious bill with no chance of passage.
June 24, 2011
A Two-Year Transportation Bill? Some Say It’s a Better Deal
Last week, we reported that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) had mused aloud at a committee hearing that perhaps a two-year transportation reauthorization was a better option in the current political and economic environment than a six-year bill. "We don't have a lot of money here," he said.
April 19, 2011
FedEx Chair, New Mexico City Official Ask Senate for Multimodal Transpo Bill
Congressional committees charged with drafting the new transportation bill have been holding hearings to seek input from stakeholders around the country. In today’s installment, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee heard from five state DOT chiefs, one city official, and the chair of FedEx. Those witnesses’ pleas to the committee ranged from bike trails and transit to highways and deregulation.
April 14, 2011
Lowlights From the Transpo Bill Hearing: A Tea Partier Tries to De-Fund Transit
Last week’s stakeholder extravaganza in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee brought out the best and worst ideas about how to reform the transportation sector. We highlighted some of the good stuff earlier. Now for the bad and the ugly.
April 4, 2011
Yes, Transit Belongs in the Highway Trust Fund
As gas tax revenues wane, making it harder to finance a long-term transportation bill, ideas are beginning to circulate about how to save the (very poorly named) Highway Trust Fund. Some say the gas tax needs to rise. Others say fewer programs need to be financed out of the fund, which pays for all federal surface transportation investment, including transit. More and more, we’ve heard highway boosters say the Highway Trust Fund should go back to olden times when it was just for highways.
March 4, 2011
Mica is “Pretty Confident” That New Rules Won’t Starve Highway Trust Fund
The Journal of Commerce reported yesterday that the House Transportation Committee chair, Rep. John Mica (R-FL), is “’pretty confident’ in the assurances he has received in talks with House leaders” that recent changes to House rules wouldn’t jeopardize Highway Trust Fund spending.
January 11, 2011
Sen. Boxer: Working With Mica, Inhofe on a Long-Term Transpo Bill
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.
January 6, 2011
Republicans Want to Hoard Transpo Money and Call It Deficit Reduction
Transportation advocates, from both the highway and transit lobbies, are up in arms about a proposed change to House rules governing transportation spending. It would jeopardize dedicated transportation funds by changing the rule requiring that a certain level of highway trust fund money be spent each year. According to a letter [PDF] sent to House leadership last week by 21 organizations including AASHTO, APTA, and the Chamber of Commerce:
January 3, 2011