Reauthorization
Basics
Experts See No New Transportation Bill Before Election
Last May, Streetsblog ran an article with the headline "Experts Agree: Six-Year Transportation Bill Won't Pass This Year." A lot has happened since then, but we're still right where we started, butting up against a deadline with more than enough gridlock to give even optimistic experts pause.
March 7, 2012
Tomorrow’s Key Vote on Senate Transpo Bill Could Go Either Way
In interviewing a number of experts for an upcoming article about the prospects of passing a transportation bill, I've found a surprising amount of disagreement about whether the Senate bill will clear a key milestone tomorrow.
March 5, 2012
How the House and Senate Transportation Bills Changed Overnight
The sun rose this morning on a landscape considerably different from the one described by not one but two articles Streetsblog published yesterday.
March 2, 2012
Good News: Cardin-Cochran Amendment Incorporated Into Senate Bill
Majority Leader Harry Reid has incorporated much of the Ben Cardin/Thad Cochran amendment into the so-called "manager's mark" of the Senate transportation bill. The move means that the amendment's provisions letting local governments directly access funding from popular bicycle and pedestrian programs will be included in the bill without having to come up for a separate vote.
March 2, 2012
With Contraception Vote Over, Senate Can Finally Get to Transpo Issues
The U.S. Senate voted 51-48 today to reject an amendment to their transportation bill that would overturn measures in President Obama's signature health care law dealing with contraception coverage. The vote clears the way for the Senate to finally begin considering actual transportation issues rather than dealing with delay tactics.
March 1, 2012
House Scales Back Transpo Bill But Keeps on Attacking Safe Streets
UPDATE (3:45 p.m.): Citing a lack of support from his colleagues, Speaker John Boehner has dropped his 18-month transportation proposal and has not yet offered an alternative, according to Politico. "A five-year bill is the best way to do this," he said.
March 1, 2012
Congress to America: “Get a Car!”
Photographer and blogger Jay Mallin, whose video of Woodbridge, VA police ticketing injured pedestrians was picked up by Streetsblog NYC a year ago, has turned his attention to the congressional transportation debacle.
February 29, 2012
House GOP Regroups While Senate Dems Tackle Amendments
Last week's big news -- that the House transportation bill faces a likely overhaul by its Republican authors -- rippled through Washington faster than you can say, "gas tax increases are off the table." Very little is known yet about the revised House bill, except that it will probably restore dedicated funding for mass transit, which is good but by no means a fix.
February 27, 2012
Americans Can’t Afford a Highway-Centric Transportation Bill
Gas prices, you may have heard, are on the rise again. And so is pandering about pain at the pump. Four years after $4 a gallon gas spawned "Drill, Baby, Drill" and insane political gimmickry on the presidential campaign trail (remember the "gas tax holiday" favored by John McCain and Hillary Clinton?), gas price populism is back with a vengeance.
February 27, 2012
Encouraging News on Transit, But Serious Flaws Remain in House Transpo Bill
Hold that victory lap: While it's true that House Republicans are revamping their transportation bill, it's time once again to wait and see just how bad the bill still is.
February 24, 2012