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
Transportation Committee Shrinks, EPW Announces New Members
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The committees with jurisdiction over transportation are shrinking. In the Senate, committee membership is only going from 21 to 20. But the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is experiencing a much more significant belt-tightening, shrinking from a committee of 75 to just 59. Of those 59, 33 are Republicans and 26 are Democrats. Congressional staff […]
New T&I Rep. Richard Hanna: A Little Bit Upstate NY, A Little Bit Portland
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Rep. Richard Hanna, recently named the vice chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, is one of 19 freshmen Republicans on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. (Duncan Hunter is the 20th new Republican on the committee, but he’s not a freshman.) He represents New York’s 24th District, which includes Cooperstown, Utica, Norwich and the […]
CA Rep. Hunter: Roads Constitutionally Mandated, Transit Must Pay For Itself
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Streetsblog Capitol Hill caught up with Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) yesterday after the T&I Committee meeting wrapped up. He’s the only new Republican on the committee who’s not also a new member of Congress. He followed his father, also named Duncan Hunter, into the seat in 2008. Hunter is on the Republican Study Committee that […]
Senate Committee Backs Infrastructure Spending (But Not For Bike Lanes)
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“We need to take care of this sooner than later,” Sen. Barbara Boxer said this morning in reference to a surface transportation reauthorization. “We can’t keep doing extension after extension.” Before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee even has all its members named (that should happen in the next day or so, according to […]
Top DOT Officials Preview the Push for a Transportation Bill
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Before President Obama made his call for infrastructure investment in the State of the Union address last night, an impressive panel of about a dozen DOT officials addressed the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting to divulge what they could about the reauthorization of the long-term national transportation law. Secretary Ray LaHood has said he’s confident […]
Obama: Europe and Russia Invest More in Roads and Railways Than We Do
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President Obama made his long-awaited infrastructure push during his State of the Union address – with more information included in an accompanying memo released today (see below). This is what he told Congress: The third step in winning the future is rebuilding America. To attract new businesses to our shores, we need the fastest, most […]
Guess Who Sen. Barbara Boxer Is Sitting Next to at the SOTU?
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Rep. John Mica, in the spirit of post-Tucson bipartisanship.
Will President Obama Speak for the Transit-Starved Tonight?
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President Obama is expected to make a strong push for infrastructure spending during the State of the Union address tonight. Ahead of the address, the Transportation Equity Network organized its members and supporters to write to President Obama, telling their personal stories of why transit funding is crucial to their communities. In all, TEN will deliver […]
NTPP: Infrastructure Investment Will Only Boost the Economy If Done Right
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At the federal level, we’re nearly flat out of transportation money and spending most of what’s left to stimulate highway construction jobs. It’s a double whammy that could present a bleak future for federally-funded transportation projects. A new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Transportation Policy Project (NTPP) challenges the country to envision a […]
Get Rich While Reducing Emissions: Smart Growth Keeps Looking Smarter
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Just when you may have been looking for ways to counter that Pew report which poo-pooed the environmental impacts of transit and smart growth, here’s more evidence that reducing driving has an essential role to play in meeting economic and environmental goals: A new report from the Center for Clean Air Policy concludes that compact […]
Republicans Propose Spending Cuts Targeting Amtrak, Transit Funding
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A new Republican proposal would eliminate federal subsidies to Amtrak; kill New Starts, the primary federal transit funding program; and make painful cuts to dozens of other federal programs. It’s a plan by the Republican Study Committee, which is trying to keep alive House Speaker John Boehner’s campaign pledge to reduce the budget by $100 […]
LaHood Goes to Detroit to Talk to Automakers About Distracted Driving
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A year ago, the Department of Transportation helped launch FocusDriven, an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using cell phones. “In one year, we’ve made progress – but at least 5,500 people still die every year in crashes,” said FocusDriven president Jennifer Smith, who lost her mother in a collision involving […]