Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Federal Funding

Study: Federal Funding Means More Bike Commuting

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 12, 2013 | 4 Comments

Bicycling is at a tipping point in many American cities. Bike-share systems are multiplying rapidly, infrastructure that used to be seen as novel is now commonplace, and commuting rates are growing. There are many explanations for this cultural shift, but here’s one not to be ignored: federal funding. Georgetown Public Policy Institute student Marissa Newhall […]

Amtrak Foe Mica Meets His Match in John Robert Smith

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 9, 2013 | 7 Comments

I just sat through a pretty boring hearing on rail financing. But I’m glad I stuck it out, because the fireworks came at the end, when Rep. John Mica picked a fight with the wrong man. John Robert Smith is familiar face in transportation reform circles. The former Republican mayor of the town of Meridian, […]

Senate Offers a More Multi-Modal 2014 Transportation Budget Than the House

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 27, 2013 | No Comments

Last week, a House panel envisioned some big cuts to next year’s transportation budget. TIGER and high-speed rail would get nothing, Amtrak would get slashed, and ixnay on all that green “livability” crap. (And that’s practically a quote.) The Senate Appropriations Committee voted this morning on the budget its own transportation subcommittee put together, and the end […]

“The Twilight of the Appropriations Process”: House GOP Gets Its Knives Out

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 19, 2013 | No Comments

Constrained by Paul Ryan’s budget and the sequester, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and HUD passed a $44 billion spending bill for 2014 – 15 percent lower than 2013 enacted levels. The bill contains $15.3 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Transportation, also 15 percent below enacted 2013 levels and amounting to […]

Obama’s Budget Would Save the Transpo Trust Fund. If Only It Were Real.

By Tanya Snyder | May 20, 2013 | 1 Comment

President Obama’s transportation budget proposal can give you a contact high if you stand too close. The prospect of budget surpluses — in the near-term, at least — is intoxicating. And the source of those surpluses — from Overseas Contingency Operations — is a hallucination. The Congressional Budget Office, in its invaluable “just-the-facts” way, released […]

U.S. PIRG: The Driving Boom Is Over But the Road-Building Binge Continues

By Tanya Snyder | May 14, 2013 | 14 Comments

The driving boom is over. After decades of steady growth, U.S. driving rates have stagnated and even fallen. Per capita driving is as low as it was in 1996. And yet, federal and state government estimates continue to predict inexorable growth, relentlessly building expensive new highways for drivers who might not materialize. A groundbreaking new […]

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