2009 Transportation Bill
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On Transpo Bill, Administration Wants Congress to Sort Out The Details
At a networking event for young transportation professionals yesterday, a member of the Department of Transportation's policy team offered insight into the Obama administration's strategy as it attempts to reset the nation's transportation polices.
September 17, 2010
Postcards From Our National Transportation Funding Meltdown
At an event billed as a
“town hall” held at USDOT headquarters yesterday, top department
officials answered questions about the future of the nation’s road,
rail, bus, and bike networks -- even as the prospects of passing a
comprehensive transportation reauthorization bill anytime this year
appear as dim as ever. Already, reauthorization of the transportation
bill is nearly a year overdue, as lawmakers have failed to muster the
will to pay for it.
July 15, 2010
Former U.S. DOT Chief on the Worst-Case Scenario: 4 Years of Extensions
To a certain extent, hope springs eternal in federal transportation
circles. Even as state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations
operate under the latest in a series of extensions of the
2005 law that governs road, transit, and bike-ped spending, few are
willing to envision a future in which new legislation doesn't pass by
next year.
April 19, 2010
Senate Starts Work on New Transport Bill, With House Version as a Guide
The Senate today took its first steps towards voting on a new
long-term federal transportation bill, with environment committee
chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) vowing to take up a successor to the 2005
infrastructure law before 2011 and indicating she would use the
House's already-introduced
version as a framework.
March 3, 2010
Transportation Filibuster Update: Bunning Won’t Yield to Fellow GOPer
Federal infrastructure funding and many U.S. DOT workers remain in
limbo today as Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) continues his one-man filibuster
of legislation extending the 2005 transport law, turning himself into a
Democratic target and a poster child for Washington gridlock.
March 2, 2010
Deja Vu Again: One-Man Senate Filibuster Imperils Federal Transport Law
A familiar script for Washington infrastructure watchers began to unfold last night on the Senate floor, as House-side resistance
to a 10-month extension of existing federal transportation law prompted
Democratic leaders to seek a quick deal on a one-month stopgap -- the
fourth such short-term move in six months.
February 26, 2010
How Can Transit Backers Sway Conservatives? Oberstar Joins the Debate
In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington,
transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum.
Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have
become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers,
urbanists and suburbanites -- and, of course, Democrats and Republicans?
February 2, 2010
LaHood Talks Budget: “Very Bright” Future for Infrastructure Fund
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he sees "very
bright" prospects for congressional approval of the Obama
administration's $4 billion National Infrastructure Innovation and
Finance Fund, the new iteration of the long-discussed National Infrastructure Bank proposal.
February 1, 2010
Transit Riders Launch Grassroots Lobbying Push in Dire Political Climate
Advocates for urban transit riders in 14 metro areas climbed the Hill
today to pitch lawmakers face-to-face on the need for extra federal
transit operating aid, a grassroots lobbying effort that could face
considerable challenges even as Democrats craft a new jobs bill with a
focus on infrastructure.
January 27, 2010
Obama Administration Working on Its Own Six-Year Transportation Bill
The annual powwow of thousands of transportation workers, planners,
and wonks that's known as the Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference
kicked off in the capital yesterday with a candid admission from some
senior U.S. DOT officials: reorienting American transport planning to
accommodate the overlap with housing and environmental sustainability
is proving pretty difficult.
January 11, 2010