Streetsblog Capitol Hill

The Senate passed its jobs bill today by a 70-28 vote, bringing Congress one step closer to a $20 billion transfer that would keep the nation's highway trust fund solvent until 2011 and extend the 2005 federal transportation law.

The high-water mark for American parking policy came in the early 1970s, when cities including New York, Boston, and Portland set limits on off-street parking in their downtowns. They were compelled to do so by lawsuits brought under the Clean Air Act, which used the lever of parking policy to curb traffic and reduce pollution from auto emissions. This level of innovation went unmatched over the ensuing three-and-a-half decades. Only now are U.S. cities implementing effective new parking strategies that cut down on traffic.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lisa Jackson extended an olive branch this week to lawmakers who are pushing to block her from regulating carbon emissions in the absence of a congressional climate bill, but Jackson's promise to delay action until next year appears to have made no headway with Republicans and coal-state Democrats. 

At a House transportation committee hearing today that marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration's economic recovery efforts, lawmakers offered praise for the stimulus law's impact on local infrastructure investments even as they hit upon three key areas of concern with its implementation.

Compelling infrastructure news out of the Senate last night: The long-delayed successor to the 2005 federal transportation law could come to a vote sooner than the spring 2011 timetable sought by the Obama administration, thanks to a promise secured by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) in exchange for his vote in favor of the Democratic jobs bill.

Four senior members of the Senate Banking Committee today warned Washington D.C.'s transit agency that "direct federal intervention" in the local Metrorail system could be the next step if officials did not move to remedy an "unacceptable" safety record that includes a series of recent crashes and near-misses, capped by a derailment 10 days ago.

Viewers of yesterday's Fox News Sunday were treated to an interesting sight: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), whose name is increasingly in the mix for his party's 2012 presidential nomination, distancing himself from the president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Washington's voice for state DOTs.

The Obama administration today offered a one-page sample proposal to crack down on texting behind the wheel, aimed at helping guide states through the process of crafting their own distracted driving legislation.

To call Rep. Pete Sessions (TX), chairman of the House Republican campaign committee, a critic of the Obama administration's stimulus law would be putting it mildly. Sessions marked the one-year anniversary of the law's passage last week by labeling the stimulus a "massive spending binge" that only "allegedly" created jobs in his district.