The Senate Commerce Committee passed a package of bills to create and implement goals and objectives for the overall transportation bill, update our federal freight transportation policy, and an amendment to help ensure that federal dollars help build streets that are safe for all users. These bills (including others not mentioned) represent the majority of this committee’s contribution to the overall Senate transportation bill.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Commerce Committee today adopted two key policy measures for the upcoming authorization of the federal transportation program. The “Surface Transportation and Freight Policy Act of 2011” establishes policy goals for the federal surface transportation program, such as addressing congestion, improving access to multiple travel options, supporting domestic manufacturing and reducing [...]

The Tower 55 rail intersection in Fort Worth is one of the biggest national freight bottlenecks, frequently resulting in a backlog of freight trains stretching across the county and forcing some Fort Worth children to crawl under or in-between the idling trains en route to school. A $34 million TIGER II grant will help local officals address these problems and others at once.

The new FREIGHT Act introduced by Senators Lautenberg, Murray and Cantwell would create a truly multimodal national freight program for the first time in the U.S. It recognizes that our freight system should move our goods from coast to coast while also being part of the solution for many of our most pressing problems: air quality, dangerous emissions, oil dependence, and congestion on our highways and interstates.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), with co-sponsors Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), today introduced the Focusing Resources, Economic Investment, and Guidance to Help Transportation Act of 2010 (FREIGHT Act), a landmark bill, leading the charge to transform America’s transportation policy and investment by focusing on the freight network that enables goods and commodities to move about and reach their markets. The FREIGHT Act provides a visionary, comprehensive, systemic approach to infrastructure investment that addresses the nation’s commerce needs while providing a solid foundation that will also help our nation meet its energy, environmental and safety goals.

Since Chairman Oberstar introduced the Surface Transportation Authorization Act (STAA) last summer, we’ve increasingly heard that addressing freight congestion is going to be a major component of any national transportation policy. We face a choice in how the nation will step up to meet the coming demand — and how clean those solutions will be. The upcoming reauthorization of the federal transportation bill is a great opportunity to help achieve a smarter, greener freight system. The innovative freight projects highlighted in this week’s “Good Haul” report by the Environmental Defense Fund demonstrates the practical solutions that are economically smart, protect us from harmful air pollution, and provide jobs for American workers.

PBS continued their excellent Blueprint America series with an episode on NOW last Friday night examining the issue of freight movement in America. Watch it below or over at the terrific Blueprint America site.

The new 775-page draft of the House Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 opens up with lofty language describing some goals and principles to guide the $450 billion transportation bill. But does reality match the rhetoric in the 774 pages that follow? We look at the nuts and bolts of the bill to see where it stacks up, breaking down an evaluation into positive areas, areas needing improvement, and notable omissions.

In our continuing series, we examine the third of our six national objectives for the transportation bill. Transportation for America believes that the push to make our country less dependent on oil begins with a smarter, cleaner transportation system, and for this reason we’ve made one our top national transportation objectives to promote energy efficient and achieve energy security.

Download our fact sheet on freight (.PDF) The safe and efficient movement of goods across the United States is an absolutely critical aspect of our national economy. While discussions about building a modern transportation network often focus on the need to provide people with better options, an equally important ingredient for broad-based reform is the [...]