House of Representatives

Congress is in recess, and the House's atrocious transportation bill has been dismembered and delayed, but if you want to preserve funding for transit and active transportation, don't let your guard down yet. There's still plenty to watch out for as the House and Senate attempt to reauthorize federal transportation programs. As we've reported, there are some stark differences between the House and Senate bills. But what is scariest may be their similarities.

On January 6, 1983, the icon of the modern conservative movement, Ronald Reagan, signed legislation to raise the gas tax for the first time in more than two decades, devoting a portion of the revenue to transit.

Yesterday the House debated the GOP leadership's oil drilling-with-a-side-of-highways bill, which may or may not survive the House floor.

First, John Boehner split his transportation bill into three smaller bills that deal with transportation, oil and gas drilling, and government employee pensions separately. Now, it looks like the transportation component won't be voted on until after the President's Day recess, according to Politico:

The White House issued a statement yesterday that spelled out President Obama's opposition to the House transportation bill, also known as H.R. 7. The administration's statement of policy, which coincided with the House Rules Committee hearing on H.R. 7, takes a stand in defense of transit, safety, and the environment:

With more and more Republicans coming out against provisions of the House transportation bill, the GOP leadership has opted to split their massive bill into three parts to be debated and voted on separately, Politico reports. The thinking, as Larry Ehl writes, is that members will be allowed "to go on record voting 'yes' on sections they strongly support, and 'no' on sections they strongly oppose." One bill would deal with transportation reauthorization (including the Ways & Means Committee's transit "fix"), one with energy production, and one with federal pension reform (yes, all of that was included in the same bill until today).

The hits keep coming against the Republican House of Representatives' radical transportation bill, especially its unprecedented attack on dedicated transit funding. In New York, the region's Congress member -- of both parties -- and editorial boards have now been joined by that most traditional GOP constituency: big business.

Northeastern Republicans, especially those from transit-rich New York, continue to turn against the House leadership's unprecedented attack on transit. An amendment by Manhattan Democrat Jerry Nadler, which would head off the attempt to stop gas tax revenues from going to transit, is attracting significant support from area Republicans.

It isn't only Democrats blasting the House Republican transportation bill, which would eliminate dedicated federal transit funding, cost the MTA up to $1 billion a year and slash bicycle and pedestrian funding. In the transit-dependent New York region, some Republicans are balking at the ferociously anti-urban legislation. But many of their colleagues remain studiously silent.