U.S. Senate
Streetsblog Basics
Budget Deal Is Good News for Transit
The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on that rarest of Capitol Hill treasures -- a bipartisan budget deal. If both houses approve the deal, negotiated by Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, it will be the first time since 2010 that Congress has passed a budget.
December 12, 2013
Was TIGER Eliminated in the Shutdown Deal?
Soon after the government shutdown ended, we heard murmurs that the TIGER grant program for innovative transportation projects had been a casualty of the negotiations.
October 24, 2013
Government Shutdown to End, Leaving Transit Agencies to Pick Up the Pieces
Congratulations, gentle Congresspeople. You have come up with a deeply flawed solution to a problem only you would create. Never mind that it set up another showdown three months from now. The good news is the government shutdown is almost over, for the moment. More than 18,000 furloughed U.S. DOT officials can return to work.
October 16, 2013
Nine Days in September: Congress’s Chance to Break the Gridlock
I hope you all had a good Labor Day. Streetsblog is back to work today, and you probably are too. But Congress? Not until next week. Every time there's a Monday holiday, Congress takes the whole week off, and they're milking the last moments of their August recess.
September 3, 2013
Vitter Seeks to Cut Environmental Reviews for Massive Road Projects
Bridges are getting a lot of attention as senators add their two cents to the upper chamber’s transportation budget proposal for next year. The Senate transportation appropriations bill includes $500 million for "bridges in critical corridors" (BRICC), designed as a response to the recent bridge collapse along I-5 in Washington state -- home of Senator Patty Murray, the chair of the Transportation and HUD Appropriations Committee. And in the amendment process, Republican senators have been lining up to mold the BRICC program to their liking.
July 30, 2013
At First Hearing, Foxx Defends Projects That Advance the “Public Good”
Should the nation’s largest infrastructure loan program finance projects that make the transportation system more productive and efficient? Hell no, says Senator David Vitter, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Hundreds of millions of dollars should be available to any old project that comes along, as long as it has a good shot at repaying the loan.
July 25, 2013
T4A Calls for Action Against Dreadful House Transpo Budget
Transportation for America is gearing up for a fight over transit, rail, and TIGER funding, and they're asking supporters of smart transportation investments to make their voices heard.
July 19, 2013
Foxx Rocks Confirmation Hearing, Reveals Some Initial Priorities
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx's Senate hearing was, by all accounts, the one "oasis of calm" on an otherwise stormy Capitol Hill yesterday. There were no sharp exchanges, no tense moments, not even any particularly tough questions. Two weeks from today, we'll probably be calling him "Mister Secretary."
May 23, 2013
Congress to U.S. DOT: Streets Aren’t Safe Until They’re Safe For Everyone
Yes, traffic fatalities have been (mostly) going down, but as long as cyclist and pedestrian fatalities keep going up, we can’t truly say our streets and roads are getting safer. That’s the message from 68 members of Congress to one pretty receptive audience: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
March 29, 2013
Mica’s New Post Gives Him a Good Vantage Point For Sniping at Amtrak
Perhaps Rep. John Mica's most remarkable legacy as chair of the House Transportation Committee is the single-minded focus he gave to attacking Amtrak. Under the guise of wanting it to succeed, Mica has repeatedly excoriated it as a "Soviet-style monopoly" and a waste of taxpayer dollars. He's tried to sell off its only profitable line, the Northeast Corridor, and made a mockery of every aspect of its operations, right down to food service. If there's anything he got more glee out of criticizing, it was the Transportation Security Administration.
January 3, 2013