Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Reauthorization

Dems Grudgingly Approve House Transpo Extension’s Disastrous Timeline

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 16, 2014 | 5 Comments

Yesterday, during the one-hour debate period over the House proposal to extend transportation funding through May 31, lawmaker after lawmaker stood up to condemn the bill. America needs a long-term transportation bill, they said. A short-term stopgap only creates more uncertainty. And then they voted for it. More Democrats than Republicans voted for it, in […]

House, Senate Take Different Paths to Prop Up Transportation Funding

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 10, 2014 | No Comments

This morning, the House Ways and Means Committee passed its plan to prop up the Highway Trust Fund — which pays for transit and bike/ped infrastructure in addition to roads — until May 2015. A few hours later, the Senate Finance Committee approved a plan of its own, with no deadline attached. Sens. Ron Wyden […]

House Proposes 8-Month Transpo Bill In Hopes for a Republican Senate in 2015

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 9, 2014 | 2 Comments

While a six-year Senate transportation bill languishes in partisan purgatory, the House Ways and Means Committee has proposed an eight-month patch that would backfill the Highway Trust Fund until May 31, 2015. That would punt the transportation bill debate until a new Congress takes over — one that’s expected to have Republican majorities in both […]

Senator Pat Toomey Fights to Spare America From Safe Streets

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 25, 2014 | 4 Comments

You know the Senate is close to passing transportation legislation when someone introduces a hare-brained amendment to ban bike and pedestrian programs. Sen. Ron Wyden, as promised, yesterday introduced a bill to extend MAP-21 and the Highway Trust Fund’s authority by three months. It also transfers some money from the general fund into the HTF to keep […]

And So Begins the Long Slog to the Lame Duck

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 24, 2014 | No Comments

The push for a long-term transportation bill is slowly giving way to the reality of an utter lack of consensus around a funding mechanism. The chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which is charged with finding that consensus, indicated today that the job just isn’t possible right now. The Hill reports that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) […]

GOP’s Lunatic Plan for Funding Transportation Draws Nothing But Scorn

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 3, 2014 | 4 Comments

House Republicans announced on Friday the latest in a long line of hare-brained schemes for funding the Highway Trust Fund, which is projected to become insolvent in August. Their ingenious proposal is to pay for transportation by making cuts at the post office. This idea didn’t come from some Tea Party fringe of the GOP. […]

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