The “conference” on the transportation bill between the House and Senate began yesterday. As the conferees work to produce a final bill, they must keep in mind the priorities that millions of Americans of all political and socio-economic stripes have expressed in polls, town hall meetings, and countless events. Many of these can be found in the bipartisan, compromise bill passed by the Senate and should be preserved during negotiations.

“It is with deep disappointment that we find ourselves compelled to oppose the transportation bill advanced by House leadership. While we commend Chairman Mica (R-FL) for doing what he can to move a long-term transportation bill forward, the full legislation now heading to the floor of the House has significant fatal flaws. For more than three years, our coalition has worked hard for an updated federal transportation program that meets our needs in the 21st century…We still remain urgently committed to that goal.”

An emerging House proposal for a multi-year transportation bill, highlighted at a press conference today by Speaker John Boehner, is already raising strong concerns due to the stated intent to fund the massive shortfall in gas tax revenues for transportation through controversial increases in oil drilling and speculative energy exploration. It’s encouraging to hear House leaders [...]

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 [...]

After the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee moved their draft transportation bill (MAP-21) out of committee with a successful bipartisan vote this morning, T4 America Director James Corless offered this statement: “The bipartisan passage of the MAP-21 bill in the Senate EPW Committee this morning provides a significant opportunity to move forward on a [...]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released a draft of the transportation bill late last Friday. We’ve prepared a few pages on what this draft bill propose to do to the federal transportation program. This is a bit on the wonky side, but hopefully you will find it helpful if you’re trying to summarize the 600 pages of bill text. One of the most visible changes MAP-21 makes is to restructure seven core highway programs and 13 formula programs into just five core programs.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released text of their portion of the transportation bill late last Friday evening. Our staff is still chewing through the details of the 600 pages and we hope to have some sort of analysis and statement ready later today. It’s a good time to remember that this committee [...]

President Obama gave a short speech in the Rose Garden Wednesday calling on Congress to come together quickly to pass a “clean” extension of the federal transportation bill to ensure that there’s no interruption in federal funding for transportation projects while they debate a longer-term reauthorization. The clock starts ticking after Labor Day.

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, President Obama stood with representatives of labor and business to call for a “clean” extension of the existing transportation funding measures, and a long-term transportation authorization. James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued this statement in response: “Extending the gas tax and the current law that allocates transportation funds ought [...]

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leadership released a 22-page outline of their upcoming transportation reauthorization proposal yesterday. (Read our statement here.) The outline indicates that the full bill cuts overall transportation funding by 35 percent and removes the requirement to spend a small fraction on bike and pedestrian facilities. The current balance between highway [...]