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.

Study finds that T4America’s policies would support 400,000 more jobs than continuation of SAFETEA-LU As America continues to reel from sustained, high unemployment, a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that, with a smart investment strategy, authorization of a proposed $500 billion transportation measure could support more than 7.2 million jobs. EPI examined [...]

When President Obama signed the HIRE Act into law last week, he ushered in important progress on several important transportation initiatives. The Act extends current transportation law until December 31, 2010 and restores $19.5 billion in interest to the Highway Trust Fund. This works out to $14.7 billion for highways and $4.8 billion for mass [...]

With jobs, the economy our quality of life in the balance, Congress must act now on authorization. As the national transportation program faces fiscal uncertainty today following Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-KY) refusal to extend legislation to fund transportation and other national programs on Friday, James Corless, campaign director of Transportation for America, released the following statement.

As you may have read on Streetsblog Capitol Hill, the Senate passed a stopgap one-month extension of the current law last night. There have been a lot of questions flying around today, so we’re going to try to post a handful with some simplified answers when possible to clear up any confusion. The short explanation? The Senate failed to pass an extension of their own to match the House’s 3-month extension before the transportation bill expired last night. Instead, they passed an emergency one-month extension.

With the House passing a $7 billion patch for the Highway Trust Fund yesterday afternoon to keep it from running out of money before September, we thought it might be useful to post a brief Q&A about the trust fund patch and how the full six-year transportation authorization bill could be affected. The $7 billion patch moves to the Senate for a vote, probably this afternoon, before reaching President Obama’s desk.

Rep. James Obertsar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told Congressional Quarterly this week that he will not pass an extension of the federal transportation bill if the new bill is not finished when the current law (SAFETEA-LU) expires on Sept. 30. (From today’s print edition. Not publicly linkable) Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman [...]

The following article, which was written by T.R. Goldman for the newspaper Roll Call, focuses on the Transportation for America Campaign and its nationwide push for a better transportation program. The story is posted below in its entirety and can also be viewed here by subscribers to Roll Call. It comes around every half-dozen or [...]

Maryland PIRG policy associate Kristi Hovarth points to the numerous flaws behind our outdated federal transportation policy — and offers a multitude of suggestions for fixing it.  (Baltimore Sun)

The U.S. Senate approves a plan to move $8 billion dollars into the highway trust fund. (Associated Press)