WASHINGTON, DC — Congressional leaders from both the House and Senate agreed Friday to extend SAFETEA-LU, the current surface transportation law, for six months at current funding levels and without policy changes. James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued this statement in response: “It is a good sign, indeed, that bipartisan negotiations between House Speaker [...]

The House has not yet released the full text of a transportation bill proposal, but the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has released an outline of the principles that will be included in the bill. We posted an analysis of the outline here. This is one in a short series of posts looking into some of [...]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) released a bipartisan outline today of its transportation bill, titled Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, or MAP-21. The outline highlights “key areas” of the legislation’s highway title but remains vague on details. The transit title and financing components of the bill are under the jurisdiction of other committees and are not included.

Sidewalkers Originally uploaded by Transportation for America to Flickr. Photo by the Safe Routes to School National Partnership Transportation is what connects us all to the things we need each day, making life possible. But the decisions we’ve made about where and how to spend our transportation dollars have extended that opportunity to some people [...]

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Democrats held their own news conference right on the heels of Chairman John Mica’s hearing this morning and, judging by the tone of their remarks, the two parties are not on the same page. “While we have yet to see much of the details of this legislation, based on the [...]

Several organizations representing users, trade groups and industries weighed in on House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica’s unveiling of his principles for a transportation reauthorization this morning. The recurring theme in most of them appears to be ringing disappointment in a bill that would spend less money than the last transportation reauthorization in [...]

Today, House Transportation and Infrastructure committee chairman John Mica (R-FL) released an outline of principles for a proposed six-year transportation bill. The $230 billion, six-year proposal represents a 35 percent spending reduction with potentially significant impacts on road and bridge repair and maintenance, as well as public transportation and safer walking and bicycling. James Corless, director of Transportation for America, had this to say in response to the Chairman’s proposal.

Consider a couple of eye-popping statistics: From 2004-2008, states spent 57 percent of available highway dollars to add a little over 1 percent to our already vast highway network, and only 43 percent to maintain the other 99 percent of highway lanes. Keeping our existing highway network in “good” condition would require spending $43 billion [...]

The unofficial release of a draft six-year transportation bill last week offers a promising albeit non-definitive glimpse of Obama administration priorities for the nation’s infrastructure programs. The proposal, titled the Transportation Opportunities Act, boosts resources for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s core highway program while making significant investments in transit. High-speed rail receives $8 billion upfront and $53 billion over six years, and $27.5 billion is directed toward a new Livability Program that folds many existing pedestrian, bicycling and transit elements under one umbrella.

T4 America co-chair John Robert Smith encouraged members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to enact “bold new policy” to repair our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, increase transit options and demand accountability for results, in testimony delivered on Capitol Hill today. Smith, the former 16-year Republican mayor of Meridian, Mississippi and President and CEO of [...]