Federal Funding
Basics
Amtrak Foe Mica Meets His Match in John Robert Smith
I just sat through a pretty boring hearing on rail financing. But I’m glad I stuck it out, because the fireworks came at the end, when Rep. John Mica picked a fight with the wrong man.
July 9, 2013
Senate Offers a More Multi-Modal 2014 Transportation Budget Than the House
Last week, a House panel envisioned some big cuts to next year’s transportation budget. TIGER and high-speed rail would get nothing, Amtrak would get slashed, and ixnay on all that green “livability” crap. (And that's practically a quote.)
June 27, 2013
“The Twilight of the Appropriations Process”: House GOP Gets Its Knives Out
Constrained by Paul Ryan's budget and the sequester, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and HUD passed a $44 billion spending bill for 2014 – 15 percent lower than 2013 enacted levels. The bill contains $15.3 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Transportation, also 15 percent below enacted 2013 levels and amounting to about two-thirds of the president’s request. It passed the subcommitee this morning on a voice vote.
June 19, 2013
Obama’s Budget Would Save the Transpo Trust Fund. If Only It Were Real.
President Obama’s transportation budget proposal can give you a contact high if you stand too close. The prospect of budget surpluses -- in the near-term, at least -- is intoxicating. And the source of those surpluses -- from Overseas Contingency Operations -- is a hallucination.
May 20, 2013
U.S. PIRG: The Driving Boom Is Over But the Road-Building Binge Continues
The driving boom is over.
May 14, 2013
A Golden Opportunity for Congress to Avoid the Transportation “Fiscal Cliff”
MAP-21 expires in a year and five months. When it does, if lawmakers haven’t already found a solution to the “transportation fiscal cliff,” they’ll have to do one of three things, according to a report issued last week by the Congressional Budget Office [PDF]:
May 1, 2013
Sparks Fly as Lawmaker Grills LaHood on Columbia River Crossing Transit
From the beginning of today’s hearing, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee made it clear they weren’t going to let Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s last appearance before them be an easy one. While the hearing's purpose was to examine the department's budget request, the tough questions LaHood fielded on the budget were nothing compared to the fight one lawmaker picked about the Columbia River Crossing.
April 16, 2013
Could Transportation Spending Become a Core Conservative Value?
Sen. James Inhofe has always said that, although he’s one of the most conservative members of the Senate, he’s a “big spender” on two things: national security and infrastructure. An influential conservative group appears to be humming the same tune.
April 15, 2013
Rep. Scott Garrett Wants to Let Dead-Broke States Go It Alone on Transpo
In order to “address our insolvent transportation program and end the taxpayer bailouts of the Highway Trust Fund,” Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) has introduced a bill to let states “opt out” of the federal transportation program altogether.
April 1, 2013
Sen. Patty Murray Increases Transportation Investment in 2014 Budget
So, right now you're thinking, "God save me, not another post about the budget!"
March 15, 2013