Ben Goldman
Recent Posts
Obama Budget Proposes $476 Billion for Transportation Over Six Years
| | 3 Comments
President Obama has released his budget request for the 2013 fiscal year, which includes a proposed $476 billion investment in transportation over six years. High-speed rail, mass transit, and bridge repair would get a big boost under Obama’s plan, which is paid for primarily by war savings as America’s troop presence is drawn down in […]
Why the House Transportation Bill Hits Bus Riders Especially Hard
| | No Comments
When the House Ways and Means Committee voted to divert all gas tax revenue away from transit projects, severing transit’s only dedicated source of federal funds, they were essentially throwing transit riders under the bus. While the House’s official stance is that their proposal still somehow guarantees funding for transit, it really does anything but. “It’s […]
Senate Transportation Bill Clears First Floor Vote, 85-11
| | 2 Comments
The Senate picked the right day to make themselves look good by comparison. Today saw a massive mobilization of opposition to House Speaker John Boehner’s five-year disaster of a transportation bill, even as he defended it at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 85-11 to move forward with Senator Barbara […]
Six Lies the GOP Is Telling About the House Transportation Bill
| | 6 Comments
The transportation-plus-drilling bill that John Boehner and company are trying to ram through the House is an attack on transit riders, pedestrians, cyclists, city dwellers, and every American who can’t afford to drive everywhere. Under this bill, all the dedicated federal funding streams for transit, biking, and walking would disappear, leading to widespread service cuts […]
Baucus Adds Transit Tax Benefit to Senate Transpo Bill
| | No Comments
The Senate Finance Committee is currently marking up what lawmakers have christened the “Highway Investment, Job Creation and Economic Growth Act of 2012,” the final component of the Senate’s two-year transportation bill. This portion of the bill, put together by committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT), is responsible for the “pay-for” — identifying approximately $13 billion […]
Schumer Amendment: Make Transit Tax Benefit Equal to Parking Benefit
| | No Comments
The last piece of the Senate’s two-year transportation reauthorization proposal will be marked up by the Finance Committee tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. The committee was tasked with finding approximately $12 billion to bridge the projected shortfall of the Highway Trust Fund over the life of the bill. So far, according to a summary released by Chairman […]
Rangel: House GOP Has No Idea Where Transit Funding Would Come From
| | 1 Comment
Today at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, four members of New York’s congressional delegation joined the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in decrying House GOP efforts to drastically alter how the federal government supports transit in cities. Under the House’s plan, instead of receiving a roughly 20 percent cut of the federal gas tax, […]
Who Still Likes the House Transpo Bill? Big Oil, Big Truck, and Big Box Retail
| | 16 Comments
The House has finished marking up its transportation bill in what shaped up to be a very Groundhog Day-esque ordeal of unending, repetitive partisan theater (if you missed it, follow coverage on twitter). The centerpiece was yesterday’s/last night’s/this morning’s Transportation & Infrastructure committee markup, where members debated more than 80 amendments for over 18 hours […]
Massive Coalition Opposes House GOP Attempt to Eviscerate Transit
| | 12 Comments
The House Ways and Means committee has just passed a bill that would kick transit out of the highway trust fund, casting aside a 30-year history of providing a dedicated funding source for federal transit programs. Transit instead would be funded by a transfer from the general fund, which would have to be offset by […]
Senate Transit Bill Clears Committee With Unanimous Bipartisan Support
| | No Comments
While their colleagues in the House were debating more than 80 amendments to a transportation bill, members of the Senate Banking Committee were quietly passing their two-year transit bill with — get this — unanimous bipartisan support. The bill includes some reforms — such as allowing federal funds to be spent on transit operations — […]
House GOP Moves to Decimate Dedicated Transit Funding
| | 7 Comments
In a move that should dispel any remaining thoughts that the House transportation bill [PDF] will ever be signed into law, the Ways and Means Committee announced today that they will try to forbid gas tax revenue from funding transit. The Ways & Means bill [PDF] would funnel all gas tax revenue toward road programs, […]
Amendment to Restore Bike/Ped Programs in House Transpo Bill Fails
| | 8 Comments
An amendment that would restore the popular Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements programs to the House GOP’s transportation bill has just been defeated in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by a vote of 29-27. Supporters of safer biking and walking sent thousands of messages to Congress supporting this amendment in the short time […]