Transit
Despite Nods to Transit, House GOP Still All About Highways
In its annual “Views and Estimates” document [PDF], the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee indicates that when it comes to transportation policy, despite a few nods to transit, House Republicans still want to cut spending and let highway-centric state DOTs sort out the details. While the House transportation bill could be on its last legs, the document shows that the House GOP hasn't given up on its quest to eliminate street safety programs for walking and biking while giving a free hand to states to build more sprawl projects.
March 12, 2012
Bad Transit Condemns Much of Ohio’s Growing Urban Poor to Dependency
Once every four years, politicians descend on a hard luck steel town in Northeast, Ohio called Youngstown.
March 9, 2012
AASHTO’s Vision of Safe Streets for Seniors: Bigger Type on Highway Signs
Last June, Transportation for America brought the nation’s attention to the fact that older Americans are increasingly stuck in the suburbs without adequate transportation options, leading them to see family and friends and even doctors less. That same month, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on transportation access for older Americans.
March 2, 2012
Six Northeast Republicans Join Nadler, Oppose Boehner’s Attack on Transit
The House GOP bill, drafted with significant input from Speaker John Boehner's office, would eliminate mass transit's dedicated funding stream, first signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1982. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former House Republican, has called it "the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service."
February 13, 2012
Why the House Transportation Bill Hits Bus Riders Especially Hard
When the House Ways and Means Committee voted to divert all gas tax revenue away from transit projects, severing transit's only dedicated source of federal funds, they were essentially throwing transit riders under the bus.
February 10, 2012
Schumer Amendment: Make Transit Tax Benefit Equal to Parking Benefit
The last piece of the Senate's two-year transportation reauthorization proposal will be marked up by the Finance Committee tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. The committee was tasked with finding approximately $12 billion to bridge the projected shortfall of the Highway Trust Fund over the life of the bill. So far, according to a summary released by Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), they have found a little over $10.4 billion:
February 6, 2012
Rangel: House GOP Has No Idea Where Transit Funding Would Come From
Today at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, four members of New York's congressional delegation joined the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in decrying House GOP efforts to drastically alter how the federal government supports transit in cities.
February 6, 2012
Massive Coalition Opposes House GOP Attempt to Eviscerate Transit
The House Ways and Means committee has just passed a bill that would kick transit out of the highway trust fund, casting aside a 30-year history of providing a dedicated funding source for federal transit programs. Transit instead would be funded by a transfer from the general fund, which would have to be offset by cuts elsewhere to avoid raising the deficit. As US PIRG's Dan Smith said yesterday, this is like saying that transit funding will come from the Tooth Fairy.
February 3, 2012
Senate Transit Bill Clears Committee With Unanimous Bipartisan Support
While their colleagues in the House were debating more than 80 amendments to a transportation bill, members of the Senate Banking Committee were quietly passing their two-year transit bill with -- get this -- unanimous bipartisan support. The bill includes some reforms -- such as allowing federal funds to be spent on transit operations -- that transit advocates have been pushing for.
February 2, 2012
House GOP Moves to Decimate Dedicated Transit Funding
In a move that should dispel any remaining thoughts that the House transportation bill [PDF] will ever be signed into law, the Ways and Means Committee announced today that they will try to forbid gas tax revenue from funding transit.
February 2, 2012