Federal Funding
Basics
Obama Budget Proposes $556B, Long-term Transportation Bill
The White House hasn’t released its FY2012 budget request yet. What we know so far is that it’s a $3.7 trillion budget that would reduce the deficit from $1.6 trillion projected for 2011 to $1.2 trillion next year. President Obama “trims or terminates” more than 200 federal programs, according to the Washington Post, but has big plans for transportation: his budget envisions a $556 billion transportation bill. The Hill reports that the proposal includes "$50 billion in up-front investment that 'creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in the short-term.'"
February 14, 2011
What to Look For in President Obama’s Budget Request on Monday
On Valentine’s Day, President Obama’s heart-shaped box of chocolates to Congress will come in the form of his budget request for 2012. It will include the president’s proposal for a six-year transportation reauthorization.
February 11, 2011
GOP Moves Ahead With Deep Cuts to Transportation, Housing
The House Appropriations Committee voted last night to move ahead with deep spending cuts, totaling $32 billion, to the remainder of the FY2011 budget. It’s still not the $100 billion the GOP wanted to cut, and some committee Republicans voted no, saying the cuts were still too small.
February 9, 2011
House Democrats Begin to Push Back on Draconian GOP Spending Cuts
Hasn’t it felt lately like Capitol Hill is in some kind of bizarre vortex?
February 9, 2011
GOP Targets Transportation, Housing For the Deepest Cuts
The House Appropriations Committee yesterday gave a glimpse into their plans to cut spending as promised. Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) set spending ceilings each of the 12 Appropriations subcommittees, cutting the budget for the Transportation and HUD Subcommittee by 17 percent, or $11.6 billion.
February 4, 2011
AASHTO Suggests Some Tools for Getting Out of the Transpo Funding Mess
The Problem: Highway Trust Fund revenues only cover about 44 percent of the transportation system’s needs.
February 4, 2011
New T&I Rep. Richard Hanna: A Little Bit Upstate NY, A Little Bit Portland
Rep. Richard Hanna, recently named the vice chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, is one of 19 freshmen Republicans on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. (Duncan Hunter is the 20th new Republican on the committee, but he’s not a freshman.) He represents New York’s 24th District, which includes Cooperstown, Utica, Norwich and the Finger Lakes. He’s a licensed pilot, an NRA member, and the founder of a crisis fund for women. We caught up with him to talk transportation and asked him some questions from our readers.
January 27, 2011
GAO: Transportation Spending an Investment With Uncertain Returns
Cross-posted from Mobilizing the Region, the official blog of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
January 25, 2011
NTPP: Infrastructure Investment Will Only Boost the Economy If Done Right
At the federal level, we’re nearly flat out of transportation money and spending most of what’s left to stimulate highway construction jobs. It’s a double whammy that could present a bleak future for federally-funded transportation projects.
January 24, 2011
Republicans Propose Spending Cuts Targeting Amtrak, Transit Funding
A new Republican proposal would eliminate federal subsidies to Amtrak; kill New Starts, the primary federal transit funding program; and make painful cuts to dozens of other federal programs. It’s a plan by the Republican Study Committee, which is trying to keep alive House Speaker John Boehner’s campaign pledge to reduce the budget by $100 billion. Boehner himself has been backing off from the pledge, given the popularity of many of the programs the Study Committee is now proposing to axe.
January 21, 2011