Recent Streetsblog USA posts about U.S. Senate

Senate Climate Bill Delayed Yet Again As Obama Takes Nobel

By Elana Schor | Oct 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

As my colleague Ryan wrote earlier, the congressional climate change bill no represents the most meaningful path for urbanists, and advocates for clean transportation in general, to make their voices heard in the national debate. President Obama, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize today. (Photo: AP) So it bears repeating that the bill is losing momentum, […]

Two More Senate Dems Back Plan to Devote Climate Money to Transit

By Elana Schor | Oct 8, 2009 | 1 Comment

This week has brought news of a brewing compromise on the Senate climate change bill, introduced last month amid signals that the upper chamber would give only a bit more to clean transportation than the House’s meager 1 percent set-aside of revenue from cap-and-trade carbon regulations. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) (Photo: Sun-Sentinel) The stirrings of […]

Is a Bigger Transportation Bill — This Year — Back on the Table?

By Elana Schor | Oct 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

That’s the suggestion that an anonymous "Senate aide" made to Bloomberg News this morning, recounting a possible White House change of heart as mounting job losses stoke new debate over a second stimulus bill: Administration officials have told allies in Congress that a broader transportation bill, and extensions of a homebuyer tax credit and unemployment […]

GOP Blocks Plan to Use Bailout Fund to Preserve $8.7B in Transport Money

By Elana Schor | Oct 1, 2009 | No Comments

A bipartisan bid to extend existing federal transportation law for three months — and tap the TARP bailout fund to avert the cancellation of $8.7 billion in contract authority — was rejected on the Senate floor last night after GOP senators insisted on using stimulus money, rather than bailout cash, to fix the problem. Was […]

Senate Passes One-Month Extension of Transport Law … For Now

By Elana Schor | Sep 30, 2009 | No Comments

By a vote of 62-38, the Senate has just passed a one-month extension of the 2005 transportation law, which was set to expire at midnight tonight and leave state DOTs without a steady source of funding for road, bridge, and transit projects. But the one-month stopgap, which was approved by the House last week, does […]

Senate Climate Bill Released With Much Fanfare, Little Focus on Transport

By Elana Schor | Sep 30, 2009 | 2 Comments

Flanked by fellow Democrats, members of the military, and a crowd hoisting signs with buzzwords like "clean energy" and "green jobs," Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) today released the first draft of their legislation to curb U.S. emissions and combat climate change. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), center, and John Kerry (D-MA), left, […]

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