Transportation Policy
Basics
House and Senate Split on Approach to Obama’s Transit Safety Plan
After a year marked by discord between the House and Senate over the timing of the next federal transportation bill, another split emerged yesterday over the timetable for taking up the Obama administration's plan for federal involvement in transit safety oversight.
March 16, 2010
LaHood Reaches Out to Transit Industry, Lamenting ‘Lousy Economy’
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sought to commiserate with the cash-strapped transit industry today, declaring the Obama administration an ally of local rail and bus agencies even as the "lousy economy" clouds prospects for passage of a new long-term federal transportation bill.
March 15, 2010
Report: Real Estate Interests Spent $5.5M on Transport Lobbying in 2009
In the debate over how -- and whether -- to set measurable performance standards for determining where federal transportation money gets spent, real estate developers are a quiet but powerful player. In a report released today, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) tracked the broad reach of land-use interests and found more than 100 groups spending $5.5 million on transport lobbying last year.
March 11, 2010
U.S. DOT Cagey on Funding New Transport Bill as Senators Seek Solutions
Senators began searching today for new strategies to connect local planners with an ever-dwindling pot of federal infrastructure dollars, even as a senior U.S. DOT aide declined to say whether the White House's upcoming principles for the next long-term transportation bill would include funding specifics.
March 11, 2010
Goldman Sachs: Yes, Build America Bonds Are Good for Transport — And Us
Goldman Sachs today confirmed that the taxpayer-subsidized debt offering known as Build America Bonds (BABs), which have helped several urban transit agencies and state DOTs pay for new projects since last year, tend to result in higher underwriting fees for Wall Street banks than most tax-exempt municipal bonds.
March 10, 2010
Could Transport Bill Inaction Hurt the White House’s Sustainability Push?
The White House's lack of interest in passing a new long-term federal transportation bill before next spring at the earliest is common knowledge in Washington, but the Obama administration has paid little political price so far for its approach to the issue. That began to change today, thanks to two lawmakers on the House panel that controls the U.S. DOT's purse strings.
March 10, 2010
Study: Clean-Car Subsidies Alone Can’t Meet White House’s Climate Goals
Government subsidies for hybrid and electric cars, while "politically seductive," will fail to achieve the Obama administration's national pollution-reduction goals if they are not coupled with a significant increase in fuel prices, according to a new study by Harvard University researchers.
March 9, 2010
Dodd Vows to Pass Livability Bill Amid Skepticism From Rural Senators
Even as the Obama administration ramps up its work on a sustainability initiative that treats transportation, housing, and energy efficiency as interconnected aspects of development policy, the effort remains without an official congressional authorization -- a situation that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) vowed to fix yesterday.
March 9, 2010
LaHood Faces Off With GOP Senator Over High-Speed Rail, Livability
When Cabinet secretaries appear in front of Congress' appropriations committees, which control the annual budgets for each federal agency, the proceedings tend to be dry affairs dominated by local concerns and arcane fiscal debates.
March 4, 2010
Moody’s Gifts Fossil-Fuel States With Positive Credit Outlook
Credit-rating agencies -- particularly Moody's and S&P, the nation's two premier shops -- wield significant influence over the financial health of private companies. But state and local officials are often equally dependent on good credit ratings to borrow money for transportation and infrastructure improvements.
March 4, 2010