Reauthorization
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 Defies Veto Threat, Passes Drill-And-Drive Extension
In a brazen but expected display of defiance -- both of the President and of bipartisan efforts in the Senate -- the House voted today to extend transportation policy through the end of September with several contentious policy changes attached.
April 18, 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
Talking Transit Funding With Construction Honcho Denise Richardson
Transportation infrastructure is big business. With tens of billions of dollars at stake, nobody tracks the financial health of the nation's transit and road systems more closely than the construction industry. And right now, the future of transportation funding nationwide is hazy indeed.
April 5, 2012
Rejection of Senate Transpo Bill Opens Rift Between GOP, Business Groups
The conservative wing of the Republican Party had their way yesterday in the House of Representatives, refusing to bring up for a vote the moderate, two-year transportation bill passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Senate, going instead with a 90-day extension, the 9th in a row.
March 30, 2012
Congress Agrees to Kick the Can for 90 More Days
Yesterday, before taking off for a two-week recess, Congress passed a three-month extension of SAFETEA-LU, the ninth since it first expired on September 30, 2009. It now only needs the president's signature sometime before midnight on Saturday to become law.
March 30, 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
Live-Blogging the House Transportation Extension Debate & Vote
After a long night's wrangling over the budget, the House convened early (for them) at 9 this morning to tackle a 90-day 60-day 90-day extension of the transportation bill. Despite some fierce opposition from House Democrats who wanted to vote on the bipartisan Senate bill instead of another extension, the measure passed. We're brought you the fireworks as they happened. See below for the gory details.
March 29, 2012
House GOP Is Back to a 90-Day Extension, Will See Debate Tomorrow
Another day, another another twist in the House's efforts to pass a transportation bill.
March 28, 2012