Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Highway trust fund

Boxer and Inhofe Say Transportation Bill Almost Ready, Funding Still TBD

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 17, 2015 | 1 Comment

Two leading Washington lawmakers assured reporters Wednesday that a long-term transportation bill is coming, but provided little in the way of details. Senators James Inhofe (R-OK) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, respectively, held a press conference Wednesday featuring a line-up of construction and labor […]

Ranking the Sad Parade of Federal Transpo Funding Ideas From Worst to Best

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 19, 2015 | 32 Comments

The problem seems simple enough: The federal transportation program is going broke because Washington has allowed the gas tax to be eroded by inflation for more than 20 years. As obvious as raising the gas tax may be, America’s political leaders won’t touch it. Yesterday, The Hill reported that Congressman Bill Shuster, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is ruling out […]

Koch-Funded Groups: Cut All Federal Funding for Walking, Biking, Transit

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 29, 2015 | 57 Comments

You know it’s time to fight over the federal transportation bill when the fossil fuel-soaked elements of the conservative movement start agitating to stop funding everything except car infrastructure. Yesterday, a coalition of 50 groups, several funded by the Koch brothers, sent a letter to Congress arguing that the way to fix federal transportation funding […]

Eno: Stop Obsessing Over the Gas Tax and Change How We Fund Transpo

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 4, 2014 | 12 Comments

Twenty years ago, Japan’s electoral reform redistributed power, giving urban constituencies a greater voice. One result: Japan eliminated its version of the Highway Trust Fund, which urban voters saw as satisfying the interests of the construction lobby, not their own. If city-dwellers had a greater voice in the United States, would the same thing happen? […]

Congress Hits the Snooze Button on Transpo Funding Until May

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 1, 2014 | 8 Comments

Someone had to cave and last night, it was the Senate. The upper chamber had fought as long as it could to adjust the House transportation bill so it wouldn’t expire when the GOP controls both chambers of Congress. But senators were never willing to actually let the Highway Trust Fund go broke. U.S. DOT would […]

Time’s Up: 6 Things to Know About Today’s Transpo Showdown (UPDATED)

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 31, 2014 | No Comments

UPDATE 2:40 p.m.: The House has rejected the Senate amendment, as expected. Today is the House of Representatives’ last day in session before departing for an August recess full of photo ops and electioneering in their districts. The Senate will stick around DC for one more day before going home. Before that happens, the two […]

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