Today’s Headlines

  • LaHood puts his health-reformer hat on for the administration .. (Tribune)
  • … days after making a surprise appearance at the National Bike Summit (Streetsblog SF)
  • Oberstar supports House ban on for-profit earmarks — but he doesn’t consider the transportation bill’s "special projects" to be earmarks (The Hill)
  • Could San Francisco become a model for transit financing through local fuel fees? (NYT)
  • Rep. Mica, the House infrastructure committee’s top Republican, makes the case against executive-branch earmarking (The Hill)
  • D.C.’s transit agency faces a make-or-break debate over how to close its budget gap (WaPo)
  • GM planning to follow the Volt with a range of purely electric, engine-less vehicles (AllCarsElectric)
  • Maryland outlines its request for federal street cleanup aid following last month’s Snowmageddon (Balt. Sun)
  • One Dallas-area skeptic of transit-oriented development outlines his frustrations (Morn News)
  • New York members of Congress meet with LaHood on bringing high-speed rail money upstate (WKTV)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

House GOP Yanks Transportation Earmark Requests — For How Long?

By Elana Schor |
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. Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) (Photo: Cleveland.com) In fact, the congressional newspaper Roll Call reported today that GOP members […]

Congress Reluctant to Shine Light on Transportation Earmarks

By Elana Schor |
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is about to unveil a massive bill that will re-authorize federal transportation programs for the next six years. The bill will also include funding for a large number of "earmarks," the congressional pet projects that can include everything from bike trails to Bridges to Nowhere. Earmarks grew largely in […]

Report: After MN Collapse, Bridge Repair Got Just 11% of D.C. Earmarks

By Elana Schor |
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 […]