Posts Tagged "reauthorization"
UPDATED: Senate reaches preliminary agreement on a long-term transportation bill
A group of key Senate leaders announced just a few moments ago that they’d reached agreement on a bipartisan six-year transportation bill with three years of guaranteed funding. While it’s encouraging to see this agreement ten days before MAP-21 expires on July 31, forthcoming negotiations over the actual details of the bill will be crucial as most Senators have not yet seen the policy or funding language.
Three changes could dramatically improve the Senate’s draft transportation bill
Ahead of the looming July 31 deadline to pass a new bill (or extend the current law), the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in late June introduced and marked up a full six-year transportation bill. While we think it’s a good starting point, there are some promising amendments that could improve the bill dramatically as it goes forward in the Senate.
House extends MAP-21 to July 31, aligning it with impending insolvency of nation’s transportation fund
After a short debate, The House of Representatives voted to extend MAP-21 for two months past its May 31st expiration to the end of July, aligning the end of the nation’s transportation law with the projected insolvency of the nation’s transportation fund. The Senate is expected to act Wednesday or Thursday to approve the bill before the Memorial Day recess begins.
Polemics give way to compromise on House rail bill
For the last few years, congressional debate over the nation’s passenger rail system has been a discordant tug-of-war between visions of high-speed rail and moves to privatize popular Amtrak corridors and kill operational support. The logjam appeared to break last week with a unanimous committee vote on reauthorizing passenger rail. The compromise bill recognizes the benefits of a truly national passenger rail system and seeks to improve it rather dwell on drawbacks.
States’ underinvestment in road repair signals need for tough federal standards
Consider a couple of eye-popping statistics: From 2004-2008, states spent 57 percent of available highway dollars to add a little over 1 percent to our already vast highway network, and only 43 percent to maintain the other 99 percent of highway lanes. Keeping our existing highway network in “good” condition would require spending $43 billion […]
T4 America co-chair John Robert Smith tells key House subcommittee to repair infrastructure and invest in transit options
T4 America co-chair John Robert Smith encouraged members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to enact “bold new policy” to repair our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, increase transit options and demand accountability for results, in testimony delivered on Capitol Hill today. Smith, the former 16-year Republican mayor of Meridian, Mississippi and President and CEO of […]
“Transportation 101” provides a primer on the federal transportation program
Understanding how current federal transportation policy works — much less how to go about changing the current system — requires a sometimes painful amount of context. So we put together this comprehensive report to provide some clarity and document where we’ve been, how the program works (or doesn’t work) the process of reauthorization and the new (and old) challenges facing us tomorrow and beyond as Congress debates a new transportation bill.
House transportation leaders kick-off nationwide tour in West Virginia
West Virginia’s Beckley (right) and Charleston were the first two stops on a multi-state tour that House transportation leaders hope will result in a bipartisan bill to fund the nation’s infrastructure. The current law, known as SAFETEA-LU, expired in September 2009 and has continued under a series of short-term extensions, the latest expiring in March. […]
President Obama proposes $556 billion, six-year federal transportation program
President Obama released a budget for fiscal year 2012 this morning that includes a significant boost to our nation’s infrastructure and a long-overdue emphasis on options and accountability. The $556 billion, six-year proposal is an ambitious standout in a largely sober blueprint.
Two former secretaries of transportation stress renewed focus on infrastructure, better ways to pay for it
Former secretaries of transportation Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner want less talk on infrastructure and more action. In a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday, this bipartisan duo that both worked in Republican administrations called for increased attention on the nation’s infrastructure, more accountability and wisdom for how we choose what projects to fund and declared the existing gas tax an insufficient funding source for the future.
Transportation for America proposal creates more jobs than current transportation law, Economic Policy Institute finds
What if we could re-design our nation’s transportation policy to increase travel choices, reduce oil dependency and create more jobs? According to an Economic Policy Institute study, we could do just that if Congress adopts Transportation for America’s proposal.
East Tennessee doctor weighs in on the health-transportation connection
Our transportation decisions have a huge impact — positive or negative — on the health and well-being of all Americans. This idea that health and transportation are connected is gaining traction all across the country due in large part to groups (and T4 America partners) like the American Public Health Association, Prevention Institute, Partnership for Prevention and Health by Design. An influential doctor wrote a smart op-ed for an Eastern Tennessee newspaper this week asking some pointed questions on behalf of Tennesseans.
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