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
Does the Elusive Infrastructure Bank Already Exist?
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Last week, three Washington heavy-hitters brought a new contribution to the debate over a national infrastructure bank: They said we already have one. Mark Alderman of the Obama-Biden transition team, former U.S. Senator Evan Bayh, and Howard Schweitzer, former vice president of the Export-Import Bank co-wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post saying that the […]
Update: House Gives Free Pass to Cement Polluters
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Just to give a quick update on the Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act that we reported on yesterday: The House passed the bill 262 to 161 in a not-quite-party-line vote. None of Rep. Henry Waxman’s amendments were accepted. In fact, no amendments were accepted. All were offered by Democrats. The House then moved on to discuss a […]
House to Vote on Cement Industry Environmental Regulations
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Republicans have made clear that they don’t think President Obama’s jobs plan, including $50 billion for transportation infrastructure, will create jobs. They would rather remove regulations that cost industry money. They say reducing this “regulatory burden” will create jobs — and they want to start with the cement industry. The House is currently debating the Cement […]
Transit Union Challenges NYPD Order to Help Arrest Fellow Protestors
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After Saturday’s arrest of 700 Occupy Wall Street protestors, the New York Police Department ordered bus drivers to go to the Brooklyn Bridge, and transport protestors to police facilities for holding and processing. But the bus drivers didn’t think helping cops suppress protestors’ first amendment rights was in their job description, and the Transport Workers Union took […]
Get on the Bus (With Everybody Else)
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Has your morning bus commute gotten a little more crowded lately? Sharing the light rail car with a few more folks? That’s because transit ridership just keeps rising, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Americans took 85.7 million more trips on public transportation in the first six months of this year than they did during […]
McConnell Spoiling For a Fight Over Jobs Bill, House Passes Budget Extension
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Amid prognostications that the jobs bill is “dead” — including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s announcement that the House won’t vote on the bill in its entirety — Senate Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell said today that he’s just itching for a vote on the Senate floor. Yes, it’s a tactic to make Obama look bad. […]
USDOT Tries to Resuscitate the HSR Dreams Congress Wants to Bury
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High-speed rail has had a rough go of it lately. The House refused to give it a dime for next year, while the Senate only managed to allocate a fraction of what the president wanted. President Obama stuck some money back in via his jobs package, but it already seems clear that the package won’t […]
Cantor Orders Up Tax Cuts, Hold the Jobs
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Congressional insiders say that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is refusing to hold an “all or nothing” vote on President Obama’s jobs bill. Cantor says he’ll bring “elements” of the bill to the floor but not the whole bill. It’s pretty clear which elements Cantor approves of. He expressed his preferences soon after the president unveiled […]
Republicans Have Their Own Plan to Pay for Infrastructure Jobs: Oil Drilling
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President Obama has proposed a plan to pay for the American Jobs Act, the $447 billion bill to create 1.9 million jobs, including $50 billion for infrastructure. His “pay-for” plan includes limitations on itemized deductions for the wealthy and the elimination of some tax loopholes for oil and gas companies. Republicans have a different idea, […]
Another Shutdown Avoided
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It’s getting to be a little like the Boy Who Cried Wolf over on Capitol Hill. I mean, it’s hard to get all revved up about an impending government shutdown when Congress always insists on taking negotiations to the edge and they always figure out something right before the deadline. The 2011 fiscal year ends […]
Sen. Menendez Introduces Bill to Plan For Livable Communities
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New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez has taken up where former Senator Chris Dodd left off. Last week, Menendez offered a fresh version of Dodd’s Livable Communities Act. The bill would formally authorize the HUD Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities and its Regional Planning and Community Challenge grant programs, restoring funding for those programs to […]
Will Obama’s Transportation Jobs Plan Avoid Funding Sprawl?
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USDOT has made public the breakdown of President Obama’s $50 billion plan to create jobs through transportation infrastructure investment. The administration says: “It will put people to work upgrading 150,000 miles of road, laying/maintaining 4,000 miles of train tracks, restoring 150 miles of runways, and putting in place a next-generation air-traffic control system that will […]