Understanding how current federal transportation policy works — much less how to go about changing the current system — requires a sometimes painful amount of context. So we put together this comprehensive report to provide some clarity and document where we’ve been, how the program works (or doesn’t work) the process of reauthorization and the new (and old) challenges facing us tomorrow and beyond as Congress debates a new transportation bill.

West Virginia’s Beckley (right) and Charleston were the first two stops on a multi-state tour that House transportation leaders hope will result in a bipartisan bill to fund the nation’s infrastructure. The current law, known as SAFETEA-LU, expired in September 2009 and has continued under a series of short-term extensions, the latest expiring in March. [...]

President Obama released a budget for fiscal year 2012 this morning that includes a significant boost to our nation’s infrastructure and a long-overdue emphasis on options and accountability. The $556 billion, six-year proposal is an ambitious standout in a largely sober blueprint.

Today, the Orlando Sentinel profiled Congressman John Mica, the powerful Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and perhaps the person most crucial to President Obama’s success at infrastructure investment. Mica is an 18-year veteran of the House and longtime advocate for rail, particularly in his home state of Florida.

Former secretaries of transportation Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner want less talk on infrastructure and more action. In a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday, this bipartisan duo that both worked in Republican administrations called for increased attention on the nation’s infrastructure, more accountability and wisdom for how we choose what projects to fund and declared the existing gas tax an insufficient funding source for the future.

Last night at midnight marked one year since the last federal transportation bill expired, a development that is noted — and updated every second to account for the delay — in the top right hand corner of every page on the Transportation for America web site. In a long, wide-ranging story this week, Jason Plautz of E&E News (subscription only) noted our clock while pointing out the 365 days of delay since the transportation bill first expired last September.

A coalition of Americans from rural areas pushed back this week against a proposal to continue the status-quo transportation policy that places highway expansion above all other options. While highway and road building remains integral to connectedness, “it is not enough to address the economic and mobility needs of small-town and rural America,” the statement stressed.

President Obama was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today, Labor Day, talking up the White House’s brand new plan to create jobs through $50 billion in new transportation and infrastructure investment. “The President’s initiative, as we understand it based on the broad outlines issued today, will give much-needed help to the economy while kick-starting the long-delayed transformation of the nation’s outdated surface transportation program,” said T4 America Director James Corless.

When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced last week that he was unable to secure the 60 votes needed to move forward on comprehensive climate legislation, it put an end to any realistic chance of capping carbon emissions in 2010, making it more urgent than ever to pass a reformed transportation bill that can help us reduce emissions and oil use.

What if we could re-design our nation’s transportation policy to increase travel choices, reduce oil dependency and create more jobs? According to an Economic Policy Institute study, we could do just that if Congress adopts Transportation for America’s proposal.