Streetsblog Capitol Hill
House to Take Up Transportation Spending Bill This Week
The House's transportation and housing spending bill for 2010 is slated for a vote in the full chamber this week, setting the stage for possible showdowns over the measure's $4 billion for high-speed rail and $150 million for the Washington D.C. Metro system.
July 20, 2009
Know Your Road Lobbyists: The American Highway Users Alliance
For a 77-year-old nonprofit group with substantial Washington clout, the American Highway Users Alliance keeps a pretty low profile.
July 20, 2009
A Brief Reply to Heritage’s Ronald Utt, PhD
Readers, Ronald Utt has written a memo for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, on Barack Obama's transportation policy.
July 20, 2009
An Orszag-ian Principle: Transportation Reform is Health Reform
During the Washington budget debate earlier this year, a phrase widely attributed to White House budget director Peter Orszag was rolling off many a reporter's keyboard: "Health reform is entitlement reform."
July 17, 2009
5 Down, 5 to Go: Plan Linking Transit to Climate Bill Wins Sponsors
Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported this week that the Obama administration -- which often talks about reducing transportation-based emissions -- is staying mum on a bill that would devote a guaranteed share of revenues from carbon regulation to transit, bike paths, and other green modes of transport.
July 17, 2009
Economic Hardship Standard in Stimulus Sparks Washington Ferry Flap
The House transportation committee convened this morning to hash out the ongoing battle over federal policy-making, but Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) had a more local concern.
July 16, 2009
Team Obama’s Transportation Chain of Command: ‘A Bit Complicated’
It's no secret that key leaders of the House transportation panel and the White House economic team don't get along -- from quips about shovel skills to a stimulus "shouting match," committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and his top lieutenant, Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-OR), have become two of their party's leading Obama administration skeptics.
July 16, 2009
Blumenauer and Co. Face Off With Utility Industry Over Clean Water
As anyone who's tried to get around during a water main break knows, good old H2O has its own infrastructure and its own role in local transportation.
July 15, 2009
White House Staying Quiet For Now on Transit’s Role in Climate Bill
Delivering his climate-change message to Congress yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned that fuel-efficiency advances secured by the Obama administration would not be enough to reduce emissions from transportation -- not without encouraging Americans to drive less.
July 15, 2009
Understanding Washington’s Metro Crash
The House of Representatives subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia convened yesterday afternoon to hear testimony related to the tragic Washington Metro accident of June 22.
July 15, 2009