Transportation Policy
Could D.C. Become Transit’s New Civil Rights Battleground?
A $189 million budget shortfall for next year is forcing some tough choices on Washington D.C.'s local transit authority, which is poised to approve a package of fare increases and service cuts that includes a 35-cent hike for bus trips.
March 29, 2010
Oberstar Stays Optimistic About New Transport Bill in 2010
House transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) today renewed his call for action on a new federal infrastructure bill before year's end, using a hearing on the Obama administration's stimulus law to urge passage of long-term legislation as well as a second round of short-term investment in roads, bridges, and rail.
March 26, 2010
New Stimulus Data: Road Funds 77% Under Contract, Transit at 74%
As of the end of February, nearly $5.4 billion of transit stimulus money, or 74 percent, was under contract for projects in the 50 states and D.C., according to a Streetsblog Capitol Hill analysis of data released today by the House transportation committee.
March 26, 2010
Boxer Aims to Put TIGER-Type Program in Next Federal Transport Bill
During an otherwise-abbreviated hearing yesterday, Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) joined the chorus of praise for the stimulus law's TIGER program, declaring her intention to add a version of the competitive infrastructure grants to the next long-term federal transportation bill.
March 25, 2010
Transport and the Tea Party: How Conservatives Talk About the Gas Tax
The passage of health care legislation this week, while elating Democrats, has proven an equally potent motivator for conservatives advocates of states' rights. Appearing on Sean Hannity's Fox News show last night, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) was asked about the viability of the legal challenge to the health bill filed by 14 mostly conservative attorneys general.
March 25, 2010
EPA Drops Data Before GOP Forces Shutdown of Transportation Hearing
The Senate environment panel today was forced to prematurely shutter its latest hearing on the next long-term federal transportation bill after Republicans invoked a rarely-used right to close down committee work as part of their broader protest against the majority party's health care legislation.
March 24, 2010
Feds Begin Redefining ‘Affordable Housing’ to Include Transport Costs
The process of expanding the federal government's definition of "affordable housing," a stated goal of the Obama administration's sustainable communities effort, began in earnest yesterday with the introduction of a new index that integrates transportation prices into the cost of living for hundreds of metro areas.
March 24, 2010
Transit Operating Aid Bill Doesn’t Fly With Major D.C. Transit Group
A burgeoning congressional push to let urban transit agencies tap federal funds for operating their systems is not sitting well with the transit industry's largest D.C. lobbying group, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
March 23, 2010
House GOP Yanks Transportation Earmark Requests — For How Long?
When House Republicans voted recently to renounce all earmarks for this year, the move appeared to one-up Democrats' pledge to forgo earmarks to for-profit entities in 2010 -- a vow that would not extend to transportation projects.
March 22, 2010
Inhofe: California is Dictating to Feds on Auto Fuel Efficiency
The senior Republican on the Senate environment panel has criticized the House transportation bill for strengthening federal involvement at the expense of states -- but when it comes to last year's agreement to raise national fuel-efficiency standards, Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK) is making the opposite argument, accusing the White House of letting one state dictate auto policy.
March 22, 2010