Transportation for America Director James Corless today issued the following statement in response to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s unveiling of the latest draft of the Senate’s surface transportation authorization, MAP-21, and the majority leader’s call for a cloture vote on Tuesday, March 6: “With the revisions Majority Leader Reid has negotiated with the committee [...]

After getting thousands of phone calls, letters and messages from constituents, mayors, city councilmembers, health and business groups and others spanning the spectrum, the Senate moved three key amendments into the overall Senate bill yesterday, including one that will give local communities more control over their transportation dollars. While there are other amendments that our coalition will continue to work on in the Senate, this is a huge victory and a terrific step forward for strengthening the MAP-21 bill.

The Senate is scheduled to begin debating their transportation bill (MAP-21) today. We’re going to be keeping a close eye on a handful of amendments that could improve or make damaging changes to the bill as they’re offered, debated and voted on. Save or bookmark this page to keep tabs on these amendments that we’re [...]

The Senate’s transportation bill, MAP-21, goes farther than any recent transportation measure to devolve responsibility and funds down to the state level. An amendment to be debated this week would push that devolution even further – down to the local level — for a small pot of money that could make a big difference.

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 [...]

We’re kicking off a short series of posts looking at some of the specific provisions in the Senate’s MAP-21 proposal over the coming days and weeks, as well as some of the proposed amendments in play. The Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee has jurisdiction over highways and controls what usually amounts to about 80 percent of the bill’s total investments — though that spending also covers freight, biking and walking, and air quality, for example. MAP-21 was approved in the EPW committee on November 9th.

A key Senate committee is deciding the fate of public transportation right now. The Senate Banking Committee is writing their portion of the Senate transportation reauthorization and they have jurisdiction over transit. They need to know that it’s important to give transit agencies the flexibility to use their money not just to buy new buses or railcars but for the operation of those buses and trains. That’s because transit agencies in our larger cities aren’t allowed to use the federal dollars they receive to keep trains and buses running, even in this incredibly difficult time.

Leading negotiators in the House and Senate released a compromise spending bill to fund the U.S. Department of Transportation, alongside several other departments, through the end of the current fiscal year in September 2012. The measure is known as a “minibus” because it collapses several appropriations bills into one package, The conference agreement between the [...]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its two-year highway reauthorization bill this morning and moved it out of committee by a bipartisan, unanimous 18-0 vote. (Read our statement here.) The committee markup was short, as compared to a typical markup of such a large bill, but that was a testament to the work [...]