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Senate Passes One-Month Extension of Transport Law … For Now
By a vote of 62-38, the Senate has passed a one-month extension of
the 2005 transportation law, which was set to expire at midnight
tonight and leave state DOTs without a steady source of funding for
road, bridge, and transit projects.
September 30, 2009
Senate Climate Bill Leaks: The Good News and Bad News for Transport
The Senate's climate change legislation will finally
make its debut tomorrow, courtesy of environment committee chairman
Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and foreign relations committee chairman John
Kerry (D-MA). But the Washington Post has already obtained a
"close-to-final" version of the bill [PDF], which provides some details but leaves unanswered the key question of how much aid will go towards clean transport.
September 29, 2009
Deja Vu: Congress Could Put Off Deal on Transport Bill Until Next Month
After a day of
twists and turns, the House yesterday approved a three-month extension
of the current law that governs spending on the nation's transit,
bridges, and roads. Yet the 335-85 vote obscures an ongoing clash between the House and Senate that could extend into a fourth straight month.
September 24, 2009
Warner Scores a (Small) Win for White House’s Transportation Agenda
While it pushes for an 18-month delay in the next federal infrastructure bill, the Obama administration has proposed
a data collection effort that would help states and localities begin
tracking ridership and usage of transit, roads, buses, and the like --
a small put pivotal step towards enacting national performance standards for transportation.
September 17, 2009
Klobuchar & Webb: Dems’ Unlikely Opponents of Bike-Ped Investment
Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) attempt
to curb federal investment in bicycle and pedestrian paths, as well as
other "transportation enhancements," was defeated on the Senate floor
today -- but it managed to pick up two unlikely Democratic supporters
in the process.
September 16, 2009
More on McCain’s Anti-Transit and Coburn’s Anti-Bike Amendments
As Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported yesterday,
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered amendments striking money for more than
20 transit projects from the bill that funds the U.S. DOT next year.
September 15, 2009
White House Tells Senate: Grants No Substitute For Infrastructure Bank
The White House has reiterated its commitment to a national infrastructure bank
(NIB), urging the Senate to reconsider a 2010 transportation spending
bill that would "substitute in its place" $1.1 billion in grants.
September 11, 2009
Dodd Stays at Helm of Transit Panel — But at a Cost to Climate Bill?
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) announced
this afternoon that he would stay on at the helm of the Banking
Committee, which also has jurisdiction over federal transit issues,
rather than move over to lead the health panel previously led by his
friend, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
September 9, 2009
Compromise or Concession: Congress Faces Tough Transport Choices
Health care and transportation funding are very different items on Congress' to-do list, but the Washington Post's assessment
of the former issue fits the latter as well: Lawmakers return today
from a month-long recess to find a political landscape that has barely
shifted from the impasse of late July.
September 8, 2009
Mmmm, This ‘Pork’ Sounds Tasty: Senators Serve Up Transit Aid
One of Washington's most enduring truisms is that "pork" is in the eye of the beholder. Self-styled anti-earmark crusaders are fond of bashing clean transportation projects as improper uses of taxpayer money, but most of them recognize privately that rail, bus, and bike investments are a good thing.
September 3, 2009