Federal Funding
Basics
Lawmakers Fret About Impact of Budget Cuts on Transit
“In 2014, federal investment in surface transportation -- which is currently about $50 billion per year -- will drop to $6 billion or $7 billion. In one year.”
March 14, 2013
Senate Unlikely to Challenge House Cuts to MAP-21 Budget
If you were hoping the Senate would swoop in and save the day after the House voted to cut $785 million from the transportation budget, you might be disappointed. Politico's Burgess Everett reports that Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) isn't planning to present an alternative transportation budget proposal. Mikulski is considering rolling several appropriations bills into a "hybrid" continuing resolution bill, but transportation isn't one of them.
March 8, 2013
Congress Comes to the Bike Summit (and the Bike Summit Goes to Congress)
Tuesday morning, Rep. Earl Blumenauer took his usual place behind the podium at the National Bike Summit. (He never misses a Bike Summit.)
March 7, 2013
Bike Summit: With a Seat at the Table, Cyclists Need to Master the Etiquette
When you talk to policy-makers, do you complain about how bicyclists lost out in the last transportation reauthorization and demand that cycling get its “fair share” of funding? Do you tell them that more and more people are riding bikes, and maybe they ought to try it too?
March 6, 2013
Shuster Shows His Thoughtful Side, Boxer Heaps Praise at AASHTO Conference
In a sense, there’s not much to say about the joint appearance at the AASHTO conference yesterday of House Transportation Committee Chair Bill Shuster and Senate EPW Chair Barbara Boxer. They thanked AASHTO for all its help getting MAP-21 passed. They addressed the big question of how to raise revenues without actually making any proposals. They agreed that infrastructure should be a non-partisan issue. None of these are breaking news.
March 1, 2013
Sequester Would Cut New Starts By $100M, Could Trigger FTA Furloughs
The consequences of the near-certain sequester for aviation have been well publicized by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's recent media blitz, but less well-known are the effects for surface transportation.
February 28, 2013
Sequestration Week: Will Congress Find a Solution By Friday? Does It Matter?
Welcome to Sequestration Week. Congress has until Friday to strike a deal that would avoid a set of dreaded automatic budget cuts.
February 25, 2013
Shuster Pre-empts Devolutionists With Defense of Federal Role
New House Transportation Committee Chair Bill Shuster (R-PA) clearly knows he's got some devolutionist conservatives in his caucus (and on his committee). While many Republicans would like to see the federal government get out of the business of infrastructure and just let the states raise and spend their own money, Shuster has always been clear that he is in favor of a strong federal role.
February 8, 2013
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett: We Have to Build This City For People
On the last day of 2007, Mick Cornett, the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City -- ranked as one of the fattest cities in the country -- stood in front of the elephants at the zoo and announced he was going on a diet, and taking the rest of the city with him. Oklahoma City lost a million pounds, 37 of which were his.
January 24, 2013
FTA Grapples With Likely Funding Cuts
After fighting to maintain reasonable funding levels in the transportation bill – and for the inclusion of dedicated transit funding in the first place – the Federal Transit Administration now finds itself up against almost certain funding cuts that imperil rail and bus expansion projects, as well as the agency's own staffing.
January 18, 2013