We’ve previously written about how Amtrak passenger rail, new public transit construction and the innovative TIGER program just had their budgets slashed in sequestration at a rate five times higher than traditional highway programs. There’s no way to prevent those cuts this year, but the Senate’s new budget for the next ten years — the first they’ve approved in years — lays the groundwork to create dedicated funding for transit, passenger rail and the innovative competitive TIGER projects, as well as generating new revenues for transportation.

If Congress can’t come to a deal to avoid automatic budget cuts March 1, some transportation programs will take a serious hit, while others will be protected. Here’s a rule of thumb: The more innovative and popular with local communities they are, the more likely they are to feel the blow.

Just a few weeks after Rep. Paul Ryan released his House budget that proposed cutting or eliminating many important transportation programs, the key Senate committee’s budget for transportation (and housing) for next year contains some good news. This doesn’t mean that the fight is over for this year — this budget will still have to be reconciled with the House, which is no easy feat. And we’ll have a battle at that point once more. It’s been tougher and tougher in the last few years to pass actual budgets for these individual programs. This year will be no different, especially heading into an election this fall.

The third batch of TIGER transportation grants was released today, and Secretary LaHood is busy today traveling between events in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Chicago to announce specific grants in those cities. In case you’re not familiar with TIGER, it’s a relatively small competitive and merit-based grant program for transportation projects that address economic, environmental and travel [...]

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 [...]

WASHINGTON, DC  — Today, members of the U.S. Senate voted 69 to 30 to approve a $128 billion “minibus” appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Transportation, alongside several other departments. James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued the following statement in response: “Today’s vote in the Senate to preserve current levels of infrastructure investment [...]

The House Appropriations Committee released their draft bill for 2012 spending in the transportation program, and the cuts are severe, with some key programs facing more of a reduction than others. The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill, or THUD, as its called, contained similar cuts for transit and road/bridge spending that we saw [...]

Although a Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Obama administration set and followed a merit based decision-making process for awarding high-speed rail and TIGER grants, several Republican lawmakers claimed the report revealed a lack of transparency and accountability for where the money went. “Although we can develop cost-effective high-speed rail transportation in this country, [...]

Funding for high-speed rail was eliminated from this year’s budget as other transportation programs absorbed deep cuts, according to the details of the deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans to cut $38 billion in spending and keep the government funded through September. The New Starts program, a key source of funding for transit projects, is reduced to $1.6 billion, while the TIGER program is reduced to $528 million from $600 million, a loss of $72 million.

As the House continues debating a 2011 budget that threatens many of our nation’s core transportation needs, some leaders are stepping up to defend these programs as critical to the lives and livelihoods of regular Americans. This Monday, Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, will headline an event in the city of Moline, highlighting how the targeted transportation investments in TIGER have created jobs and revitalized communities.