Reauthorization
Uh-Oh: Senate Finance Committee Draws a Blank on Transpo Funding
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is on the verge of releasing its proposal to reauthorize the federal transportation program until 2021. But it's counting on the Senate Finance Committee to figure out how to pay for it. And that committee seems disturbingly far from an answer.
May 6, 2014
How the GROW AMERICA Act Could Modernize Federal Transportation Policy
Yesterday, U.S. DOT did something it hadn’t done for a decade: submit a surface transportation authorization bill to Congress.
April 30, 2014
Obama Administration Sends Transportation Bill to Congress
The Obama administration today sent Congress its proposal for a multi-year transportation bill, which it's calling the GROW AMERICA Act. The bill, based on the budget proposal President Obama released two months ago, relies on corporate tax reform to raise $87 billion to fill the hole in the Highway Trust Fund. The four-year bill would cost $302 billion.
April 29, 2014
EPW Big Four Announce Plan to Maintain Status Quo for the Next Transpo Bill
Last year, while the House flailed in partisan misery, the Senate passed a transportation bill 74 to 22. When the bill was signed into law, it was considered one of the few real achievements of a deeply divided Congress. Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer got tremendous credit for enacting legislation three years in the making. And yet, it left a lot of good provisions on the cutting-room floor. While MAP-21 included some modest reforms, lawmakers missed an opportunity to prioritize transit, biking, and walking -- modes that are gaining popularity and help achieve national goals like congestion mitigation and air quality improvement.
April 10, 2014
Shuster “Encouraged” By Obama’s Transportation Funding Announcement
Bill Shuster is still digesting yesterday’s twin funding proposals from President Obama and Ways and Means Chair Dave Camp, but he’s “encouraged” by what he’s heard. Both proposals rely on corporate tax reform to plug the hole in the highway trust fund. Camp's proposal would raise about $125 billion; Obama's, $150 billion. Neither has yet released details on how their plans would work.
February 27, 2014
Will Obama and the GOP Align on Plan to Fund Transpo With Tax Reform?
Today, both President Obama and Republican House Ways and Means Chair Dave Camp unveiled plans to pay for transportation with corporate tax reform. Few details have emerged about exactly how Camp plans to do this, but Politico has heard from Capitol Hill staffers that it would push $100 billion to $125 billion to transportation over an unspecified time frame.
February 26, 2014
Live-Blogging Obama’s Transportation Announcement
3:59 p.m.: Obama says funding for these projects is going to be in jeopardy unless Congress passes a new transportation bill. Doesn't go into details. "God Bless the United States of America," and we're out.
February 26, 2014
Obama to Propose Four-Year Transpo Bill Funded By “Business Tax Reform”
President Obama will unveil a proposal for a $302 billion, four-year transportation bill during a speech today in Minnesota, according to an announcement from the White House. A fact sheet from the administration indicates the proposal would increase dedicated funding for transit more than funding for highways.
February 26, 2014
The Next Transpo Bill: Can Congress Solve the Funding Problem?
It's that time again. Just 18 months after the passage of the latest federal transportation bill, known as MAP-21, Congress has to get serious about the next one. The first hearing on the bill that will replace MAP-21 took place today in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
January 14, 2014
Eleven Things to Look for in the Passenger Rail Reauthorization
Now that the surface transportation bill fight is over -- at least for the moment -- transportation reformers are eying the expiration date of another key piece of legislation later this year. The reauthorization of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) could be a chance to make some needed changes to jump-start progress in the passenger rail system. Or it could be the next partisan battleground, making it a process as unnavigable as the lead-up to the passage of MAP-21.
March 13, 2013