T4America Blog

News, press releases and other updates

Posts Tagged "Appropriations"

Congressional appropriations proposals miss the mark

The appropriations process for 2023 determines funding levels for key infrastructure projects set up under the new infrastructure law. Congress’s proposals and the president’s budget aren’t lining up with the administration’s stated goals to improve safety, reduce emissions, and expand the national rail network.

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Three things to know about the Senate’s FY21 appropriations for transportation

Last month, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development released a proposal for fiscal year 2021 that cuts funding for important transit and passenger rail grant programs. With only 10 days until the government runs out of funding, the clock is ticking for the House and Senate to reach an agreement on their two very different appropriations bills.

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Try as Trump might, transit grants are here to stay

The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to eliminate a critical transit grant program and Congress has repeatedly parried those attempts. The new transportation funding bill from the U.S. House is only the latest evidence that those transit grants are here to stay.

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Trump administration has effectively halted the pipeline of new transit projects

Last March, Congress provided the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) with about $1.4 billion to help build and expand transit systems across the country. 142 days later and counting, FTA has obligated almost none of these funds to new transit projects. Our resource—Stuck in the Station—will continue tracking exactly how long FTA has been declining to do their job, how much money has been committed, and which communities are paying a hefty price in avoidable delays.

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U.S. Senate passes transportation appropriations bill with robust funding for transit, rail programs

press release

The US Senate again rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate or severely cut vital transportation programs that local communities rely on by adopting its FY19 Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill. In perhaps their strongest rebuke of the president’s disdain for transit, the bill language specifically requests that USDOT manage the BUILD program (formerly TIGER) as it did during the Obama administration.

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208 local leaders and organizations urge Congress not to back down from federal commitment to transportation

press release

208 local leaders and organizations—including 72 local elected officials—sent a letter to House and Senate appropriators today urging them to continue rejecting the administration’s proposed cuts to transit and passenger rail programs, and the BUILD competitive grant program. This group of elected officials and organizations, spanning 36 states, urged Congress to continue their commitment to […]

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Senate appropriators reject administration proposals to eliminate transit investment

press release

On Thursday, June 7, the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up and approved the FY19 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Act. Kevin F. Thompson, Director of T4America, offered this statement in response:

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Urge your representative to support public transit funding in next federal budget

After two straight years of the Trump administration pushing to eliminate all funding for building or improving public transportation systems, Congress is right now deciding how much funding to provide for transit in the FY19 budget. To make sure Congress knows they need to continue funding public transportation, T4America is circulating a sign-on letter for organizations and elected officials.

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Elected officials and local organizations: Support TIGER & public transit funding

Facing the prospect of severe cuts from the Trump administration and Congress, T4America is looking for elected officials and organizations to show their support for investing in smart projects to move goods, move people and support the local economies that our nation’s prosperity is built on.

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Avoiding a government shutdown, Congress moves to preserve TIGER and transit funding — for now

In a budget deal to fund the government through the end of September, Congress partially accommodated the President’s requests for more defense and security spending, but ignored his requests to eliminate funding for TIGER, new transit construction, and other programs vital for building strong local communities.

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[VIDEO] The future of federal passenger rail funding

After months of talk about investing in infrastructure, one of President Trump’s first acts on infrastructure was to propose eliminating funding for several crucial transportation programs, including long-distance passenger rail. We convened a small panel of experts to explain about the impacts on passenger rail and what interested advocates and local leaders need to know.

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162 organizations and local business and elected leaders from 30 states urge Congress to support TIGER & public transit funding

162 organizations, including elected state/local officials and chambers of commerce, sent a letter to House and Senate appropriators today urging them to preserve funding for competitive TIGER grants and the construction of new public transit service. Both are vital programs that support smart investment and also encourage local communities to raise their own funding to invest in their priority projects.

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President Trump’s federal infrastructure priorities likely to be revealed this week

There’s no need to wait months for President Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure package to discover the transportation priorities of this president — they’ll be clearly telegraphed with the release of his first annual budget later this week. For months there’s been endless discussion of the President’s $1 trillion pledge to “build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and […]

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Do our federal transportation priorities match the rhetoric we use to justify more spending?

Photo via WSDOT/Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/8670279118

With the Trump administration readying both an annual budget and discussing a possible large infrastructure package, Transportation for America this morning urged a key Senate subcommittee not to stop investing in programs that promote innovation, encourage collaboration and maximize benefits for local communities.

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After years of trying to slash funding, the House proposes solid funding for next round of TIGER grants

After several years of consistently trying to cut or outright eliminate the program’s funding entirely, House appropriators last week approved $450 million for competitive TIGER grants within the annual budget bill for all transportation and housing programs.

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Senate transportation appropriations bill adheres to local leaders’ call to fund TIGER, public transit and passenger rail

The annual transportation and housing appropriations bill – known as T-HUD – was approved last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee and contains good news for transportation.

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Over 170 local elected, business and civic leaders from 45 states call on Congress to support TIGER & public transit funding

Over 170 elected officials and local, civic and business leaders from 45 U.S. states today sent a letter to congressional appropriators urging them to provide at least $500 million for another round of TIGER competitive transportation grants as well as the full amount authorized in last year’s FAST Act for new transit construction.

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Though Congress passed a transportation bill, funding for key programs still up in the air

Though Congress passed a five-year transportation bill back in December, the fate of many important transportation programs will still be decided in Congress’ appropriations process this year. Among them is one of the few ways that local communities can directly receive funding for smart projects.

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Help make TIGER roar in this year’s budget

Though the multi-year transportation bill is behind us, Congress is currently considering an annual transportation spending bill with $600 million for the competitive TIGER grant program — an increase of $100 million over existing funding amounts. We need to support it this week as Congress finalizes a new budget to carry us into next year.

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Senate pivoting to yearly spending bill that increases TIGER but still cuts transit funds

20 Nov 2015 | Posted by | 0 Comments | , , ,

While a few Senate members are focused on the conference committee deliberations on a new long-term transportation bill, the Senate committee that doles out transportation money each year has released their proposal for next year, and the news is mixed for several important transportation programs.

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