Posts Tagged "new starts"
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.
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.
Congress kicks into high gear on transportation — let’s summarize the action
During an extremely busy week in the Senate in several key committees, a long-term transportation bill was introduced and approved, a bill to invest in and begin upgrading our nation’s passenger rail system was approved, Senate financiers continued discussing possible ways to keep our nation’s transportation fund afloat, and appropriators restored one cut to key transportation program made by the House — though not all, unfortunately.
US House approves bill by a thin margin that makes cuts to TIGER, transit construction and passenger rail
Late Tuesday night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass their yearly transportation spending bill with just 6 votes separating the bill from defeat. While the cuts to TIGER, Amtrak and New Starts transit capital programs were unfortunately approved by the House, it’s unlikely this bill will become law any time soon. That’s because of the Senate’s likely inability to pass any annual spending bills this summer due to the parties’ lack of agreement on overall funding for the government this year.
UPDATE: The House is voting to slash transportation programs local communities are counting on
This evening, the House of Representatives is expected to begin debate and vote on their annual transportation funding bill. As it stands, the bill will make painful cuts to several important transportation programs that local communities depend on. With debate beginning tonight at 7 p.m., it’s crucial that we weigh in as soon as possible.
May 31st transportation funding deadline looming over lawmakers
We’re only three weeks away from the expiration of MAP-21, the transportation law of the land, and Congress still does not have a solid plan for renewing or extending it — or for keeping the nation’s transportation fund solvent past the first days of summer.
House proposes cuts to TIGER and transit construction, stable funding for other programs for fiscal 2016
The House Appropriations Committee introduced a Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) bill for fiscal 2016 that, as in years past, features heavy cuts to TIGER, New Starts and Amtrak.
Budget compromise keeps highways and transit steady, cuts TIGER
The $1.01 trillion spending agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday night freezes highway spending at $40 billion while avoiding the big cuts to transit projects in the House proposal.
Cuts restored, progress possible in critical budget deal
Positive news from Congress today! Yes, you heard right. Just months after budget sequestration and a government shutdown put transportation funding at risk, House leaders have agreed to a budget deal that would provide stable or increased funding for key programs that you’ve helped us defend over the last few years.
Budget deal avoids automatic cuts; focus shifts to appropriations committees
Barring a successful rebellion within one party or the other, it looks like Congress may have the first bipartisan budget agreement since 2010. That is good news for the economy, and it is especially welcome where transportation infrastructure is concerned.
Amendments offered to improve the already solid Senate yearly transportation funding bill
Already standing in sharp contrast to the House’s approach to funding transportation for the next fiscal year, leaders in the Senate are working to further improve the smart Senate transportation funding bill through a handful of amendments to the bill as it reaches the floor.
As the House aims to slash, tell the Senate to protect money for rail, transit & TIGER in next week’s budget vote
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While the House plan for transportation slashes money for passenger rail, new transit construction and innovative TIGER grants, a Senate committee has drafted a budget that increases funding for new transit construction, keeps and expands TIGER, provides support for Amtrak and passenger rail improvements, and funds a new grant program to jumpstart progress on repairing critical bridges.
Senate budget lays the groundwork for fairer, increased transportation funding
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.
Unequal sequestration cuts show the need for a real transportation fund
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.
With cities and suburbs clamoring to build new transit systems, a new book showcases creative financing approaches for getting them built
The demand for public transit is at its highest point in 50 years, and more communities then ever before are looking for funds to build and operate rail and bus lines. Despite the challenges posed by ideological gridlock in Congress, dwindling federal gas tax revenues, and the elimination of earmarks, many communities are finding creative ways to move ahead.
Senate budget restores some sanity to transportation programs
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.
Transit and TIGER funding preserved in compromise spending bill
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 […]
House appropriators make deep cuts to transportation for 2012
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 […]
Proposed budget would gut transit spending, passenger rail funding
The budget proposal from the Republican Study Committee, which consists of 165 of the 242 GOP House members, released a week or so ago, calls for completely eliminating the main federal transit program, zeroes out Amtrak, cuts all funding for the metro system in the nation’s capital and slashes $2.5 billion in high-speed rail grants. Sign our petition objecting to this assault on public transportation funding.
Feds announce change to consider livability in funding transit projects
Following through on a policy change hinted at for much of 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced this morning that federal transit officials would begin considering expanded criteria as they select which transit projects to fund, focusing on livability and sustainability.
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