Transportation Policy
Basics
A Vow to ‘Bring Republicans to the Table’ for a New Transport Bill
Despite Senate Democratic efforts to move quickly on a new jobs bill that includes infrastructure investment and takes steps towards solving the nation's transportation financing dilemma, Congress has just two more weeks of work until time runs out on the latest short-term extension of the five-year-old law governing federal transport policy.
February 8, 2010
Two Troubling Transportation Numbers for the Obama Administration
Today brought news of two grim transportation numbers from the Obama administration: 2 and $53 million.
February 4, 2010
DeLauro Questions Obama Budget’s Infrastructure Fund Proposal
Despite brought support for the concept of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) to help pay for major improvements to America's built environment, including transportation, significant uncertainty still surrounds the questions of how the bank would work as well as what it would fund.
February 4, 2010
Senate Dems to Call Up Jobs Bill Monday … With Transport Details TBA
Senate Democratic leaders appeared this morning to tout their commitment to passing a job-creation bill by the end of next week -- but the substance of their jobs measure, including the fate of pivotal transportation provisions, remains up in the air.
February 4, 2010
A Modest Proposal: Ask Developers to Help Pay For Better Transport
At today's debate on conservative support for transit, developer Chris Leinberger had a modest proposal for lawmakers who are desperately seeking new transportation financing strategies in an era of diminishing gas tax returns: Ask real-estate developers to pay for projects that will increase their profits.
February 2, 2010
How Can Transit Backers Sway Conservatives? Oberstar Joins the Debate
In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington, transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum. Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers, urbanists and suburbanites -- and, of course, Democrats and Republicans?
February 2, 2010
U.S. DOT Names the Transit Projects Set for Federal Funding
The Obama administration last night revealed the names of local transit projects getting recommendations for federal aid under the U.S. DOT's New and Small Starts programs, which are set to receive $1.8 billion during fiscal year 2011.
February 2, 2010
LaHood Talks Budget: “Very Bright” Future for Infrastructure Fund
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he sees "very bright" prospects for congressional approval of the Obama administration's $4 billion National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, the new iteration of the long-discussed National Infrastructure Bank proposal.
February 1, 2010
The White House Transportation Budget: What’s In Line for the Axe?
In a fiscal year 2011 budget that proposes to increase spending on several core transportation
priorities, the White House also aims to eliminate a few
infrastructure programs that may prove popular with lawmakers.
February 1, 2010
White House Budget Includes $530M for Local Sustainability, $1B for HSR
The White House officially unveiled its $3.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011 this morning, seeking $1 billion to continue its high-speed rail investment and $530 million for the transportation leg of the Obama administration's inter-agency push to promote sustainable planning on the local level.
February 1, 2010