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Senate Introduces a Narrower Bill for Wider Sidewalks
Like everyone else, Safe Routes to School advocates are scaling back. Last year, a bill introduced in the Senate asked for $600 million to enhance pedestrian and bike safety near schools. “We were working in a pretty different environment,” said Margo Pedroso, deputy director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. “Everybody was talking about a $500 billion transportation bill. So we figured, we don’t know what the full bill will be in the end, but let’s go for the funding we feel like we need.”
April 15, 2011
High-Speed Rail Funds Get Slashed in Detailed Budget Plan
Just when we thought transportation had gotten off relatively easy in the shutdown-aversion budget deal:
April 12, 2011
You Can Open Your Eyes Now: Budget Deal Spares Transpo the Worst
It’s Monday morning, and the government is open for business. In a last-minute agreement just an hour before the current budget extension was to expire Friday night, Democrats and Republicans avoided the nuclear option of a government shutdown.
April 11, 2011
Government Shutdown Would Be a Punch in the Gut to Transit Agencies
A powwow between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, President Obama, and House Speaker John Boehner last night failed to yield a compromise that would put a budget in place before the government shuts down at midnight tonight. The failure of yet another attempt to negotiate makes a government shutdown all but inevitable.
April 8, 2011
GOP Budget Would Slash Transpo Spending, Entrench Oil Dependence
With the release of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal yesterday, right wing calls for massive cuts to transportation spending are now enshrined in the GOP leadership’s fiscal plan. Ryan singled out transportation as an area particularly ripe for cuts, criticized the use of gas tax revenues for projects that aren’t highways, and called for transportation spending levels to barely cover half of what President Obama requested in February.
April 6, 2011
More From the House Transpo Hearings: The Advocates Edition
Editor's note: These are the highlights from hearings on the upcoming transportation bill, where people made the case to Congress for sustainable transportation options. I'll follow up with the Bad and the Ugly (like a whole lineup of people who want to kick transit out of the Highway Trust Fund).
April 1, 2011
Strange Bedfellows Unite for Infrastructure Investment, Financing Tools
The “Tom and Rich Show” continued on Capitol Hill yesterday. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka joined up for yet another event to show that business and labor, which don’t agree on anything, agree on a major infusion of federal investment for infrastructure.
March 31, 2011
The Week Ahead: Congress Fights About Budget Cuts and Talks Transpo
I hope members of Congress had a nice, relaxing recess this week, because it’s about to get crazy on Capitol Hill.
March 25, 2011
WSJ: Mica Says Transit Funding Will Stay “About the Same”
Update: Transportation Committee staff says Mica has confirmed what he meant: "He was referring to the share. Keep in mind that we have no numbers or details for a bill yet -- the hearing process is not yet finished and we have not drafted a bill. He was simply speculating at this point."
March 22, 2011
House Transportation Committee Rejects Obama’s 2012 Budget Request
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is having its say about the president’s ambitious – and unpaid-for – budget request for transportation.
March 22, 2011