Barack Obama
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Obama Budget Proposes $556B, Long-term Transportation Bill
The White House hasn’t released its FY2012 budget request yet. What we know so far is that it’s a $3.7 trillion budget that would reduce the deficit from $1.6 trillion projected for 2011 to $1.2 trillion next year. President Obama “trims or terminates” more than 200 federal programs, according to the Washington Post, but has big plans for transportation: his budget envisions a $556 billion transportation bill.
February 14, 2011
What to Look For in President Obama’s Budget Request on Monday
On Valentine’s Day, President Obama’s heart-shaped box of chocolates to Congress will come in the form of his budget request for 2012. It will include the president’s proposal for a six-year transportation reauthorization.
February 11, 2011
Will President Obama Speak for the Transit-Starved Tonight?
President Obama is expected to make a strong push for infrastructure spending during the State of the Union address tonight. Ahead of the address, the Transportation Equity Network organized its members and supporters to write to President Obama, telling their personal stories of why transit funding is crucial to their communities. In all, TEN will deliver 1,000 personal letters to the President asking him to support transit investments. A few have already been sent.
January 25, 2011
How Obama Should Address Transportation in the State of the Union
Streetsblog Capitol Hill is pleased to publish this guest post from Deron Lovaas, Federal Transportation Policy Director for NRDC.
January 19, 2011
Obama Still Believes in a Bipartisan Push for Infrastructure. Do You?
Last night, President Obama appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about the election results – a “shellacking,” as he’s called it – and chart the path forward. He talked a lot about infrastructure – and between the lines of some of his other comments are messages we should be paying attention to.
November 8, 2010
Angela Glover Blackwell on Equity, Infrastructure, and the President
On Monday, President Obama talked infrastructure with two governors, eight mayors, four former transportation secretaries (and the current one), two labor leaders – and one public interest advocate. That advocate was Angela Glover Blackwell, founder of the think tank PolicyLink and chair of the Transportation for America Equity Caucus, which launched last week. The roundtable discussed the president's $50 billion infrastructure proposal, which is galvanizing transportation reformers as the contours come into sharper focus.
October 14, 2010
Drawing Ideas From Reformers, Obama Gets Behind 6-Year Transpo Plan
President Obama told reporters today that he’s committed to a six-year plan to rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, lay and maintain 4,000 miles of railways, restore 150 miles of runways, and create a national infrastructure bank.
October 11, 2010
Republicans Line Up to Oppose Obama’s Transportation Proposal
The critical multi-year transportation bill, which lawmakers have sidelined since last summer as they've quarreled about how to pay for it, looks to be back on the agenda after President Obama's pugnacious Labor Day speech, in which he called on Congress to ramp up investment in transportation. The broad outline of Obama's plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, constructing 4,000 miles of rail, and rehabilitating 150 miles of runway over the next six years.
September 8, 2010
White House Economic Report Touts TIGER, High-Speed Rail, Transit
The White House Council of Economic Advisers' first annual report under President Obama made headlines today for its gloomy job-creation outlook, but tucked inside its 462 pages is a tangible reflection of a changed outlook on transportation policy under the new administration.
February 12, 2010