The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs today approved Chairman Christopher Dodd’s (D-CT) Livable Communities Act, S. 1619. The Act would take unprecedented steps to help communities deal with a range of critical issues, from traffic congestion to housing affordability to neighborhood stability.

The Senate is on the cusp of moving an important bill forward that would help cities and towns across the country integrate housing with a safe, clean and smart transportation system. The Livable Communities Act, sponsored by Senator Christopher Dodd, is due to be voted on by the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs in what’s called a “mark up” next Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.

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.

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.

Today’s news brings great hope that the leak in the Gulf of Mexico is finally capped. But we still haven’t addressed the root cause behind the spill – the fact that our transportation system consumes 70% of the oil we use, driving us to riskier measures to obtain more oil. Will we respond to the crisis in the Gulf by starting to free ourselves from oil and finding ways to use less? Or will we resign ourselves to continued dependency and the inevitable risk of future oil spills resulting from that dependency?

A new bill that would provide $2 billion in emergency funding for public transportation agencies was introduced in the Senate today by a group of 7 Senators. Congress has taken a step, but the bill still needs lots of support to make it through the Senate in the coming weeks. Tell your senators: support emergency funding for transit systems!

Transportation for America today hailed the introduction of emergency legislation to prevent disastrous service cuts and fare hikes that are threatening public transportation riders across America. The Public Transportation Preservation Act would provide $2 billion in emergency assistance for operating expenses necessary to restore a major reduction in transit service and to hold off future fare increases due to decreased state or local funding that occurred on or after January 1, 2009. Funding would be distributed through existing formulas.

Transportation for America, the largest, most diverse coalition working on transportation reform, expressed support for key provisions of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act as a major endorsement of clean transportation options to spur energy independence and climate protection.

The American Power Act was released today, and T4 released this statement: “The Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act is a major endorsement of clean transportation as a critical strategy for energy independence and climate protection. The authors deserve high praise for ensuring that revenues generated from the transportation sector go in part toward meeting the growing demand for more, better and cleaner travel options.”

American voters overwhelmingly support broader access to public transportation and safe walking and biking, according to a new national poll.