Reauthorization
Basics
Don’t Look Now, But the House Amtrak Bill Actually Has Some Good Ideas
Tomorrow, the House Transportation Committee will consider a bill that changes the nation’s policies on passenger rail. The proposal, while it includes some cuts, is a departure from the senseless vendetta many House Republicans have waged against Amtrak in the past. The National Association of Railroad Passengers, NARP, says the plan contains "commonsense regulatory and governance reforms."
September 16, 2014
Why the Next Fight Over Bike/Ped Funding Won’t Be Like the Last
When Congress passed a two-year transportation bill in 2012, active transportation advocates had to scrape and claw for every penny of funding for walking and biking programs. When the dust settled, it seemed they would have to repeat the same old battles when the law expired.
September 11, 2014
Congress Hits the Snooze Button on Transpo Funding Until May
Someone had to cave and last night, it was the Senate.
August 1, 2014
Time’s Up: 6 Things to Know About Today’s Transpo Showdown (UPDATED)
UPDATE 2:40 p.m.: The House has rejected the Senate amendment, as expected.
July 31, 2014
Dems Grudgingly Approve House Transpo Extension’s Disastrous Timeline
Yesterday, during the one-hour debate period over the House proposal to extend transportation funding through May 31, lawmaker after lawmaker stood up to condemn the bill. America needs a long-term transportation bill, they said. A short-term stopgap only creates more uncertainty.
July 16, 2014
House, Senate Take Different Paths to Prop Up Transportation Funding
This morning, the House Ways and Means Committee passed its plan to prop up the Highway Trust Fund -- which pays for transit and bike/ped infrastructure in addition to roads -- until May 2015. A few hours later, the Senate Finance Committee approved a plan of its own, with no deadline attached.
July 10, 2014
House Proposes 8-Month Transpo Bill In Hopes for a Republican Senate in 2015
While a six-year Senate transportation bill languishes in partisan purgatory, the House Ways and Means Committee has proposed an eight-month patch that would backfill the Highway Trust Fund until May 31, 2015. That would punt the transportation bill debate until a new Congress takes over -- one that’s expected to have Republican majorities in both chambers.
July 9, 2014
Senator Pat Toomey Fights to Spare America From Safe Streets
You know the Senate is close to passing transportation legislation when someone introduces a hare-brained amendment to ban bike and pedestrian programs.
June 25, 2014
And So Begins the Long Slog to the Lame Duck
The push for a long-term transportation bill is slowly giving way to the reality of an utter lack of consensus around a funding mechanism. The chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which is charged with finding that consensus, indicated today that the job just isn’t possible right now. The Hill reports that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has a bill in the works for a short-term extension to keep MAP-21 alive and funded, at least, until the end of the year.
June 24, 2014
GOP’s Lunatic Plan for Funding Transportation Draws Nothing But Scorn
House Republicans announced on Friday the latest in a long line of hare-brained schemes for funding the Highway Trust Fund, which is projected to become insolvent in August. Their ingenious proposal is to pay for transportation by making cuts at the post office.
June 3, 2014