Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Earl Blumenauer

A Very Special Talking Headways Podcast: Chatting with Rep. Earl Blumenauer

Rep. Earl Blumenauer.

This week, we sit down with Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon’s Third District at the Rail~Volution conference in Miami. We chat about the one-year anniversary of the infrastructure bill, where we’re at with Vision Zero, the coming Farm Bill, and the important connections between housing, transportation, and health.

If you prefer to read rather than listen, click here for a full, unedited transcript. Or jump below the player for excerpted highlights:

Jeff Wood: Do you think that folks will see [the farm bill] as the next kind of big step in the progression of climate action? You know, you had the Inflation Reduction Act, there’s a lot in there, but then this seems like a next step in terms of federal legislation that can be used for climate good.

Earl Blumenauer: I hope so, but it’s not just climate, right? Climate is a huge source of emissions, and the fact that we don’t have local food processing means that we end up spending lots of energy moving things around the country with transportation and refrigeration — and it creates supply chains that are brittle. Half of America suffers from conditions that are a result of overweight or poor nutrition. We're watching some pilot projects where health-care providers are giving prescriptions for healthy food, and it ends up saving more in terms of health-care costs because people are adequately nourished. These are things that need to bring to scale to implement these options, but it’s health of the planet and its health of human population.

Jeff Wood: It’s amazing how much all these things are obviously connected. Transportation, housing, health, the social determinants of health, etc. It’s really interesting to see how they’re all very connected. There’s even, health-care providers that are providing housing because they think it’s absolutely more important to keep people housed — it actually lowers costs for them overall. And so there’s like all these connections that we can make.

Earl Blumenauer: And that’s a point that I would like us to elaborate on a little bit because our communities pay a tremendous price for failure. The housing crisis in terms of homelessness, problems with people with addiction and mental illness, being able to take a homeless person, stabilize their health. We pay a great deal for the failure of these systems. The failure of health-care, the failure of housing, the failure of transportation. Being able to get our policies right and invest our resources in the optimal way, we’ll spend less dealing with failure. I’m convinced that there’s more value to be captured and reinvested that will more than offset the costs.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Wednesday’s Headlines Welcome Our Robot Overlords

The robotaxi field is growing, but with buyouts and now possibly layoffs at the U.S. DOT, will anyone be left to regulate them?

July 30, 2025

Shifting Gears to Urban Delivery to Bikes

Bikes can revolutionize delivery in urban areas. A new report outlines how policymakers can spur them in their communities.

July 30, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines Reel in the Years

Republicans continue to roll back the Biden administration's legacy, most recently ending the DOT's Neighborhood Access and Equity program.

July 29, 2025

What Will It Take To Give Victims and Advocates a Voice at US DOT?

A new bill would put a dedicated "roadway safety advocate" in the halls of US DOT — and you can support it right now.

July 29, 2025

Monday’s Headlines E-Biking Away

There's a million destinations if we had a little help from the government to afford to buy an e-bike.

July 28, 2025

How Trump is Exploiting a Very Real Trucking Safety Concern to Crack Down on Immigrants

The Trump administration will crack down on truck drivers who don't speak English and the people who give them licenses. Some advocates say that anti-immigrant spin is distracting much broader safety problems that deserve bipartisan support.

July 28, 2025
See all posts