Tanya Snyder
Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Recent Posts
Two Infrastructure Jobs Bills Die in Senate
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Two competing versions of a transportation-related job creation bill went down yesterday in the Senate. The first, the Rebuild America Jobs Act (S.1769), was a Democratic proposal, modeled on President Obama’s job creation bill, to invest $50 billion for infrastructure and another $10 billion as seed money to create a new national infrastructure bank. Given Republican […]
The New California HSR Plan: Forecast of Doom or Blueprint for the Future?
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Earlier this week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority released its new business plan [PDF]. The transportation establishment, the government, and the media issued a collective gasp: $98.5 billion? Thirteen years’ delay? It’s true – the price tag has more than doubled. “The good news is the numbers are more realistic; the bad news is they […]
Today: Senate Debates Infra Bank, Transpo Funding, Regulations, and More
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This morning, the Senate is debating two transportation-related bills: the Rebuild America Jobs Act (S.1769) and the Long-Term Surface Transportation Extension Act (S.1786). The Rebuild America Jobs Act is a piece of President Obama’s jobs bill that was broken off in hopes that it could pass on its own. It would invest $50 billion on infrastructure […]
How Will the House Answer the Senate’s Transportation Funding Bill?
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The full Senate passed a major appropriations bill yesterday, including funding levels for transportation and housing. The Senate put the kibosh on Sen. Rand Paul’s attempt to strip bike/ped funding from the federal transportation program, as we reported yesterday. Here’s the lowdown on the bill as a whole. The upper chamber maintained funding for several key livability […]
Feds Put Off Issuing New Trucking Safety Rules
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Federal safety officials missed their own deadline Friday for making new rules about dangerous trucks. October 28 was the original deadline by which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was supposed to announce new hours-of-service regulations for trucking, but in the end, they gave themselves another month to do it. The pending change is the result […]
Bike/Ped Funding Safe as Senate Rejects Rand Paul’s Amendment
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Bike/ped funding is pitching a perfect game in the Senate after Republicans swung (and missed) at the popular Transportation Enhancements program for the third time in two months. The final strike came this morning, when Kentucky Republican Rand Paul’s amendment to divert all TE funds to bridge repair failed spectacularly, garnering only 38 votes in […]
Why Create an Infrastructure Bank When We Could Just Expand TIFIA?
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There’s been a lot of adulation heaped upon the TIFIA loan program lately. Both houses of Congress are ready to increase funding for the program nine times over, from $100 million to $1 billion a year – despite warnings from outside groups that there may not be enough eligible projects to use up all that […]
Strike Three: Another Senator Takes Another Swipe At Bike-Ped Funding
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Last month, the Senate’s notorious vote-blocker, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, tried to obstruct Senate process until they voted on his measure to take bike/ped funding out of the transportation bill. He failed. Then last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested keeping bike/ped money but stripping out lots of other budget items that serve cyclists and […]
Transforming Tysons Corner: A High-Stakes Suburban Retrofit
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“That strip mall just got rezoned for high rise buildings.” “These auto dealerships are going to disappear.” Those aren’t words you hear very often in suburbia, but if you’re hanging out in Tysons Corner, Virginia, you’d better get used to it. This office enclave, which sits dead center between Washington, DC and Dulles International Airport, […]
The Federal Government’s Smart Growth-Inspired Landlord
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Robert Peck says he’ll gladly pay more to locate office buildings near transit – the time saved commuting makes it worthwhile. Peck isn’t any old office manager. He’s the commissioner of the GSA Public Buildings Service, also known as “the landlord for the civilian federal government.” He’s in charge of acquiring office space for all […]
Senate Panel to Vote on Transportation Bill Next Month
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While a House transportation bill still appears to be a long way off, the Senate is prepared to move forward on its version. EPW Committee leaders just announced that they’ll be marking up their two-year bill November 9. This is good news for three reasons: First, it’ll be the first time we’ll be seeing full legislative text beyond […]
How Value Capture Financing Will Revitalize White Flint
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White Flint, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, should be a shining example of transit-oriented development. It’s centered on a metro station on the busy red line, sandwiched between the bustling suburban downtowns of Bethesda and Rockville. But instead, it’s “sprawling suburbia,” covered in surface parking lots and lacking a true road network. “Community members […]