House of Representatives
Basics
Could a Coal-n-Highways Dem Take Oberstar’s Place on Transpo Committee?
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) is reportedly angling for the top Democratic seat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House. Had Jim Oberstar survived the election, he would have given up the chair and become the ranking member.
November 10, 2010
Just How Lame Will This Lame Duck Be?
The GOP has named the 22 members of its transition team and it's ready to get to work. Don't expect the work for these lawmakers to include any actual law-making, though. Not till January, anyway.
November 9, 2010
Eliminate Waste or Kill Good Projects? Earmark Ban Could Cut Both Ways
As the election news sunk in yesterday, President Obama sought common ground with the incoming Republican leadership. His olive branch: earmarks.
November 4, 2010
With Oberstar Gone, Who Will Lead the Democrats on T & I Committee?
Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia would be next in line to become ranking member in January, but he already chairs the Natural Resources Committee and it’s not clear he’d switch (setting off a chain of changes in that committee as well.) Rahall’s transportation priorities – for his own, very rural, district, at least – lean toward highway construction and expansion.
November 3, 2010
Election Day Finds Two Livability Champions on the Ropes
Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) will likely lose his chairmanship of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as control of the House is widely expected to shift to the Republicans after today's election. But Oberstar could also lose his seat in Congress.
November 2, 2010
GOP Victory Could Imperil Bike-Ped Funding and Transportation Reforms
Daniel de Zeeuw is the Campaign Coordinator for America Bikes, which advocates for bike and pedestrian infrastructure in the federal transportation bill. Streetsblog asked him to tell our readers about the conversations he's been hearing about the outlook for the transportation bill after the election.
October 29, 2010
If Republicans Take the House, What Happens to Transportation Reform?
It's November 3. The Republicans have won a majority in the House of Representatives.
October 6, 2010
Republicans Line Up to Oppose Obama’s Transportation Proposal
The critical multi-year transportation bill, which lawmakers have sidelined since last summer as they've quarreled about how to pay for it, looks to be back on the agenda after President Obama's pugnacious Labor Day speech, in which he called on Congress to ramp up investment in transportation. The broad outline of Obama's plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, constructing 4,000 miles of rail, and rehabilitating 150 miles of runway over the next six years.
September 8, 2010
Report: Investing in Transit Could Create 180,000 Jobs, for Free
Between calls for renewed stimulus on the one hand and for deficit reduction on the other, Washington, D.C. is stuck. A new report by the Transportation Equity Network, however, shows one easy way to put people back to work without increasing federal spending: shifting our transportation investment to transit.
September 3, 2010
The Problems With Ports, or Why We Need a National Freight Act
Maybe you commute by train, or maybe you've switched from driving to biking. But your stuff is still traveling the country by diesel truck.
August 6, 2010