Transportation Policy
Transit Industry Group Adds a Caveat to Its Stance on Operating Aid
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which has represented the transit industry in Washington for more than 120 years, has openly welcomed the year-long push for Congress to relax longstanding rules that prevent large urban agencies to spend federal grant money on their operating costs.
March 19, 2010
Transport Fix to Jobs Bill Would Take $192M From CA, Send $76M to TX
Fixing a disputed provision in the jobs bill that President Obama signed into law yesterday -- as Senate Democratic leaders promised House transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) following complaints by several members of his panel -- would involve the redistribution of $932 million in funding for two major federal road and rail programs.
March 19, 2010
Inhofe Questions Transit and Bike-Ped Investments in House Transport Bill
The senior Republican on the Senate environment panel today criticized the House's six-year transportation bill, lamenting that the measure "focus[es] very heavily on transit, bike paths, and sidewalks" and carves out a strong federal role in "decisions historically left to the state level."
March 18, 2010
McCaskill Asks LaHood to ‘Put an End to’ Transportation Earmarks
When House leaders agreed last week to ban earmarks to for-profit entities, tax and transportation projects got a notable exemption. But that doesn't mean Congress has no appetite to curb transport earmarks, as Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) showed in a letter sent this week to U.S. DOT chief Ray LaHood.
March 18, 2010
As Geithner Touts Infrastructure, Skepticism Persists on $4B ‘I-Fund’ Plan
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, considered a skeptic of transportation stimulus spending by some lawmakers, yesterday joined two other White House economic advisers in endorsing new infrastructure investment as a means to
jump-start the economy.
March 17, 2010
Brown Offers Senate Plan For More Federal Operating Aid to Local Transit
Local transit officials seeking more federal operating aid during lean budgetary times got a new ally today in Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who introduced legislation in Congress' upper chamber to give rail and bus agencies more flexibility to spend funding from Washington on averting service cuts and layoffs.
March 16, 2010
Environmental Group Offers Congress a Map to Cleaner Freight
The federal government can reap significant pollution-reduction benefits by focusing on a national freight plan that replaces older diesel equipment with newer, cleaner-burning train cars while building out regional networks more efficiently, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said yesterday in a new report [PDF].
March 16, 2010
House and Senate Split on Approach to Obama’s Transit Safety Plan
After a year marked by discord between the House and Senate over the timing of the next federal transportation bill, another split emerged yesterday over the timetable for taking up the Obama administration's plan for federal involvement in transit safety oversight.
March 16, 2010
LaHood Reaches Out to Transit Industry, Lamenting ‘Lousy Economy’
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sought to commiserate with the cash-strapped transit industry today, declaring the Obama administration an ally of local rail and bus agencies even as the "lousy economy" clouds prospects for passage of a new long-term federal transportation bill.
March 15, 2010
Report: Real Estate Interests Spent $5.5M on Transport Lobbying in 2009
In the debate over how -- and whether -- to set measurable performance standards for determining where federal transportation money gets spent, real estate developers are a quiet but powerful player. In a report released today, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) tracked the broad reach of land-use interests and found more than 100 groups spending $5.5 million on transport lobbying last year.
March 11, 2010