Transportation Policy

The senior Republicans on three of the Senate's four infrastructure-centric committees today signed onto a letter asking the leaders of Congress' upper chamber to call up a six-month extension of the 2005 transportation law.

Democratic lawmakers are discussing the possibility of a one-year stopgap transportation bill but have yet to reach consensus on how to pay for the measure, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) said today.

The Bay Area's major transit agencies are reacting with caution to news that the Obama administration will propose a federal takeover of subway and light-rail system safety regulation. Though administration officials have not yet released the proposal, Muni and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail systems, as well as all BART operations, would likely be included in a new oversight system.

Details of the Obama administration's proposal to carve out a federal presence overseeing transit safety, first reported yesterday by the Washington Post, have yet to cross the desks of some top lawmakers and industry stakeholders. But reaction to the idea, both positive and hesitant, is plentiful this morning.

The climate change bills being considered by Congress treat electric utilities very well, giving more than a third of the revenue generated by CO2 regulation away -- for free -- to power providers. This move pleased coal country Democrats while seeking to lock down benefits for consumers by averting electricity rate hikes.

In the wake of the 2007 collapse of Minnesota's I-35 bridge, Washington policymakers vowed a renewed focus on repairing the nation's aging infrastructure. But weeks after the fatal collapse, Congress approved a transportation spending bill with 704 earmarked projects, at a total cost topping $570 million -- and just 11 percent of those earmarks went towards bridge repair, according to a new report released today.

Congressional deficit anxiety, always running high amid conservative Democrats, is reaching something of a fever pitch this week -- while the White House prepares to ask most federal agencies for two alternative budgets for the fiscal year that begins next fall: one that freezes spending and one with a 5 percent cut.

The notion of a "front-loaded" infrastructure bill to counter the rising U.S. unemployment rate has been circulating in Washington for some time, though solid details on such a measure have yet to emerge.

Alice Rivlin, now at the Brookings Institution, is one of the capital's most experienced economic hands.