Support the new plan from a bipartisan duo of senators to send more transportation dollars to local communities
Two Senators championing the cause of giving local communities more control over their transportation dollars have introduced a modified plan to steer more federal transportation dollars directly to local communities of all sizes — reaching a compromise that they want to incorporate into the Senate’s transportation bill as it heads to the floor.
Transportation for America takes a look at the options for funding transit in St. Louis
St. Louis’s economic prospects are directly related to the quality of access to transportation for their residents — making new investments in public transportation essential. A new T4America report analyzes the possible ways that the St. Louis region could fund an expansion of their public transportation network
UPDATED: Senate reaches preliminary agreement on a long-term transportation bill
A group of key Senate leaders announced just a few moments ago that they’d reached agreement on a bipartisan six-year transportation bill with three years of guaranteed funding. While it’s encouraging to see this agreement ten days before MAP-21 expires on July 31, forthcoming negotiations over the actual details of the bill will be crucial as most Senators have not yet seen the policy or funding language.
Senate committee responds to outcry, restores competitive TIGER grant program in final bill
Just a few hours after receiving a letter with 150 signatories from across the country in support of the TIGER program, late yesterday the Senate Commerce Committee removed the language from their bill that would have essentially ended that popular program of competitive transportation grants.
Over 150 elected officials, DOTs, MPOs, chambers of commerce and others voice strong support for restoring TIGER program
With the the Senate Commerce Committee due to mark up their portion of a long-term transportation bill that will eliminate the competitive TIGER grant program and refocus its funds on a multimodal freight program, more than 150 organizations and elected officials signed a letter urging the committee to restore and authorize the TIGER program.
What we’re watching: Senate Commerce Committee to mark up six-year transportation bill today
Later today (Wednesday) the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is scheduled to mark up the Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act of 2015 (S. 1732), a proposed six-year transportation reauthorization. As we’ve mentioned here before, the federal transportation bill has huge implications for development across the country. Here’s what we’ll be looking for during today’s proceedings.
Join us on Thursday for an inside look at transportation reauthorization in Congress
The current federal transportation bill will expire on July 31, 2015, with the nation’s transportation fund reaching insolvency near the same time. Join us Thursday for a public conversation about what’s likely to happen in Washington and what it all means for your community.
Cities and towns could lose one of their best options for funding smart local projects
The Senate Commerce Committee is marking up a version of a long-term transportation funding bill Wednesday morning with no authorization for the popular TIGER program , thus limiting the money available to local communities.
Three changes could dramatically improve the Senate’s draft transportation bill
Ahead of the looming July 31 deadline to pass a new bill (or extend the current law), the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in late June introduced and marked up a full six-year transportation bill. While we think it’s a good starting point, there are some promising amendments that could improve the bill dramatically as it goes forward in the Senate.
Join us for the third online discussion of the Innovative MPO on July 8th
Building on the range of new ideas for metropolitan planning organizations outlined in our Innovative MPO report, we’re hosting the third in a series of online discussions to help MPO staff, board members, and civic leaders find smart ways to use their funding and planning authority get better outcomes for their regions.
Farewell from a smart growth communications veteran
This post is a personal farewell from our friend and colleague David Goldberg, who was the founding communications director for Smart Growth America in 2002 and helped get Transportation for America off the ground in 2008-2009 as communications director. Other than former Gov. Parris Glendening at SGA, David was the longest tenured SGA/T4A employee, helping to steer this small part of the larger movement for transportation reform and creating better places over the last thirteen years. We’ll miss him deeply, and wish him the best in his new endeavors. Here are few thoughts directly from David as he departs.
Compromise in Washington State clears the way for a transportation funding package
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and state legislative leaders indicated today that they have reached agreement on a $15 billion transportation package that also provides $15 billion in local funding authority for Sound Transit, the regional transit agency for the Puget Sound (Seattle) region. The deal looked almost dead last week, but a last-ditch compromise could give Seattle-area residents a little more control over their transportation future.
The economic development potential of passenger rail for downtowns
In a Next City piece, T4America board chair John Robert Smith discussed strong public investment in downtowns in smaller cities — especially those with passenger rail connections — as a smart way to signal to the market that the public sector is committed to downtown.
Congress kicks into high gear on transportation — let’s summarize the action
During an extremely busy week in the Senate in several key committees, a long-term transportation bill was introduced and approved, a bill to invest in and begin upgrading our nation’s passenger rail system was approved, Senate financiers continued discussing possible ways to keep our nation’s transportation fund afloat, and appropriators restored one cut to key transportation program made by the House — though not all, unfortunately.
Senate Committee rolls forward with speedy markup of six-year transportation bill
In a committee markup where the phrase “doing the Lord’s work” was invoked by numerous members sides of the aisle, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sped through a markup of their draft six-year transportation bill in less than an hour this morning, approving it by a unanimous vote with no amendments, save for a manager’s package of amendments agreed to in advance.
Senate’s new transportation bill is a good start, but more should be done for local communities
At long last, there’s finally some progress to report on a new long-term federal transportation bill. Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released their draft six-year transportation bill. While we think it’s a good starting point, there are some promising proposals to improve it dramatically during a planned markup tomorrow.
Statement on the release of the Senate’s long-term transportation reauthorization proposal
Senate EPW bill represents progress toward passage of a long-term bill and a good starting point for debate and improvements. James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued this statement in response.
Statement in response to introduction of the Railroad Reform, Enhancement and Efficiency Act
Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) today introduced a multi-year bill to authorize funding to Amtrak and support passenger rail, dubbed the Railroad Reform, Enhancement and Efficiency Act. It would be the successor to the existing rail authorization, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. In response, T4America Chairman John Robert Smith, a former chair of the Amtrak board, released this statement:
New Smart Growth America report details why so many companies are moving downtown
Launched at a terrific event at Washington, DC’s Newseum just this morning, Core Values, this first-of-its-kind report is stuffed with useful data on nearly 500 companies that have decided to either move from the suburbs to a downtown location, or that have decided to expand or open a new branch in a downtown core.
House takes first step in process to keep the nation’s transportation fund solvent
For the first time since 2012, the House of Representatives held a hearing focused on funding the nation’s transportation system. Today’s hearing focused on the elephant in the room: how to adequately fund a transportation bill that’s longer than just a few months. While it’s a relief to see the funding issue finally getting airtime in the House, keeping the nation’s transportation fund solvent is only half of the problem — we also need to update the broken federal program that isn’t meeting our country’s needs.
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