Trump’s Pick for U.S. DOT Is GOP Insider Elaine Chao
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Chao was secretary of labor under George W. Bush and is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. An official announcement is expected shortly.
Recent Streetsblog USA posts about TIGER
After Big Push From Mayors, TIGER in Line For Slight Funding Boost
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There’s good news out of the Senate committee responsible for doling out transportation funds. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee okayed a small increase in TIGER funding, according to Stephen Lee Davis at Transportation for America. TIGER is the program that allows local governments to compete directly for transportation funds, circumventing state DOTs, and helps get a […]
Senate Committee Moves to Eliminate TIGER Program in Next Transpo Bill
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The Republican-controlled Senate is poised to eliminate the TIGER program, one of the few sources of federal funds that cities can access directly to improve streets and transit. While the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s outline for its portion of a six-year bill was a marginal improvement on the status quo, the Commerce Committee’s portion, known […]
Putting TIGER Spending in Perspective
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The House’s current transportation spending bill calls for reducing the share of federal spending that goes to TIGER, a grant program for sustainable transportation projects in cities, from $500 to $100 million. The budget, meanwhile, holds highway funding steady. TIGER is an enormously popular program. In its second year, it received close to 1,000 applications […]
House Bill Proposes to Slash TIGER Funding
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Federal lawmakers are running out of time to come up with a long-term transportation funding solution by May 31, when the current bill expires. Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee has released a budget for FY 2016, which begins in October, that proposes to drastically reduce funds for projects that promote walking and biking. The budget proposal calls for keeping transit and highway funding […]
Congress Trims TIGER (But Doesn’t Hack It to Pieces) in 2015 Spending Bill
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The drama is over; the House and Senate have both passed the “cromnibus” spending bill [PDF] that funds government operations through the end of fiscal year 2015. And the Department of Transportation’s TIGER program survived. While small, TIGER has proven to be a significant source of funding for local transit and active transportation projects, enabling […]