Federal Stimulus
Streetsblog Basics
Senate Approves Stimulus Bill — On to Conference Committee
The Senate approved its version of the stimulus bill this afternoon by a 61-37 vote. Attention now turns to conference committee negotiations, where differences between the House and Senate bills will get ironed out. Politico has the scoop on who will be negotiating on the Senate side, and they're not exactly an urban bunch:
February 10, 2009
Senate Requires Environmental Approval For Stimulus Projects
The final draft of the Senate's economic recovery bill will require all projects funded by the stimulus to
have approval under the National Environmental Protection
Act, or NEPA. Sponsored by Barbara Boxer, the NEPA amendment (full text after the jump) was adopted late Thursday following
Republican attempts to exempt highway projects from environmental oversight.
February 9, 2009
Stimulus Update: Senate Compromise Unlikely to Raid Transit Funds
According to a list posted by Politico, the Senate left transit funding untouched in the stim bill compromise brokered yesterday. For now, it appears safe to take a break from contacting your senators about this particular point of concern.
February 7, 2009
Senator Jim DeMint Wants to Eliminate Bike Stim Funds: Take Action!
Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who said that directing stim funds toward bicycle and hiking infrastructure
will not help the economy or create jobs, has gone too far. He and
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma have just proposed an
amendment that would kill all stimulus funds for bike and hiking
trails.
February 6, 2009
Urgent Action: Billions for Transit in Jeopardy
A Senate amendment full of spending cuts would strip $3.4 billion in transit funding from the stimulus package, Greg Sargent reports. One of the few areas that might get a spending increase in the amendment is highways. The amendment, sponsored by Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Ben Nelson, is seen as a bipartisan compromise that will likely clear the way for the whole bill to pass. There is time to prevent the amendment from including these steep cuts in transit funding, which would drop the total for transit almost in half.
February 6, 2009
Where Does Stimulus Cash Go From Here? TSTC Explains.
While we've been focusing on the stimulus action in Washington this week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has kept an eye on the region's state DOTs, which will dispense billions for transportation infrastructure. On Wednesday Tri-State filed suit to prevent the New Jersey Turnpike Authority from widening the Garden State Parkway, a project the agency intends to fund in part with stimulus cash. Tri-State has also kept the pressure on Connecticut's DOT -- which never made its wish list public -- to invest in transit, bike, and pedestrian improvements.
February 6, 2009
Senate’s $50 Billion Highway Giveaway Nearly Dead
The Inhofe/Boxer stimulus bill amendment for $50 billion in
additional infrastructure funds appears to be dead, with official word
expected soon from Senator Harry Reid's office. Sources close to the
negotiations say that at least five Democratic Senators were not going
to support the amendment if transit and water provisions weren't
improved, while Senate Republicans vowed to obstruct such improvements.
February 5, 2009
The Boxer/Inhofe Amendment: Not Green Enough
A revised draft of the Boxer/Inhofe amendment just came over the transom from a source in DC close to the negotiations (PDF). This is a draft from yesterday and negotiations are ongoing, so expect changes.
February 5, 2009
Update on Stimulus Action in the Senate — Keep Up the Pressure
The latest word from DC is that Kit Bond's pro-highway/anti-rail amendments have yet to come to the floor, while the Inhofe/Boxer amendment to create a $50 billion highway slush fund is still being finalized by its authors. The phone calls and emails are having an effect -- Boxer felt enough pressure to adjust her amendment, Transportation for America tells us, but the tweaks don't go far enough. (This huge pool of money would not, for example, set aside any amount explicitly for transit.)
February 4, 2009
Albany’s Transit Sins Come Back to Bite America
Just how bad are the service cuts and layoffs that transit agencies across the country will soon be forced to enact? Severe enough to weaken the national economy, the New York Times reports -- all while Congress pieces together a stimulus plan that does nothing to address the problem:
February 4, 2009