Federal Transportation Bill
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3 Bright Prospects for a Better Transportation Bill
Yesterday we reported on some of the terrible amendments that might get tacked on to the House transportation bill this week. But there are also some good ideas with bipartisan support among the hundreds of amendments submitted by members of the House.
November 3, 2015
3 White Elephants That Help Explain America’s Infrastructure Crisis
A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America's much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads.
September 30, 2015
House Dems: We Won’t Support a Transpo Bill That Cuts Bike/Ped Funding
House Democrats won’t stand for any cuts to federal funding for walking and biking infrastructure. That was the gist of a letter signed by every Democratic member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week.
September 15, 2015
Congress Set to Pass Yet Another Short-Term Transpo Funding Patch
The 35th transportation extension in the last six years is about to pass. The House had passed a five-month extension, the Senate insisted on moving forward with its six-year bill, then the House proposed a three-month extension, and somehow that sounded great to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
July 29, 2015
Senate Transpo Bill Sinks Under the Weight of Its Own Chicanery
Last night, the Senate voted to proceed with the consideration of the transportation bill Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democrat Barbara Boxer had worked out. It was just a day after the body had voted to block progress, objecting that they hadn’t had time to even look at the bill.
July 23, 2015
Senate Committee Moves to Eliminate TIGER Program in Next Transpo Bill
The Republican-controlled Senate is poised to eliminate the TIGER program, one of the few sources of federal funds that cities can access directly to improve streets and transit.
July 14, 2015
Senate Committee Passes DRIVE Act Unanimously After Some Tinkering
Given the bipartisan gushing that accompanied the release of the DRIVE Act on Tuesday, it came as no surprise that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the bill unanimously yesterday, with more gushing for good measure.
June 25, 2015
Inhofe’s DRIVE Act — Not as Big a Disaster as You Might Think
No, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's new six-year bill, obnoxiously named the DRIVE Act (Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy) [PDF], won't usher in a more enlightened era of federal transportation policy. But neither would it be a significant step backward. And with the realization setting in that further extensions of current law might be impossible, the DRIVE Act could actually become the nation's first long-term transportation authorization in a decade.
June 23, 2015
Ranking the Sad Parade of Federal Transpo Funding Ideas From Worst to Best
The problem seems simple enough: The federal transportation program is going broke because Washington has allowed the gas tax to be eroded by inflation for more than 20 years.
March 19, 2015
4 Things to Know as Transportation Bill Negotiations Heat Up
Lawmakers in Washington are just beginning their latest attempt to craft the first long-term transportation bill in roughly a decade. The current bill expires in just a few months, on May 31, but in Congress that's an eternity. While it's a long way from go time, the contours of the debate are starting to become apparent.
February 18, 2015