Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Lawmakers Pitch Transport Funding Ideas, From VMT to Freight Taxes
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Leaders of the House transportation committee, doggedly pursuing a six-year, $450 billion infrastructure bill this year, pressed their case this morning before Ways and Means Committee colleagues who must approve a new funding mechanism for their massive legislation. On transport funding, a question looms: Whither Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY)? (Photo: BusinessWeek) […]
Dems. in Senate Pushing Transit Into Climate Change
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Addressing a climate change forum this morning, two Democrats on the Senate environment committee said they are pushing for transit and other green modes of transport to get 10 percent of the revenue generated by the upcoming Senate bill regulating carbon emissions. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) (Photo: DTI) Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), a chief sponsor […]
Senate Agrees on $26.8 Billion Highway Trust Fund Rescue
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The Senate took a major step forward last night in its battle with the House over transportation funding, releasing a plan to give $26.8 billion to the dwindling highway trust fund and — perhaps most importantly, for the long term — to restore the fund’s ability to keep the interest it earns. Senate Finance Committee […]
White House Staying Quiet For Now on Transit’s Role in Climate Bill
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Delivering his climate-change message to Congress yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned that fuel-efficiency advances secured by the Obama administration would not be enough to reduce emissions from transportation — not without encouraging Americans to drive less. Transportation Secretary LaHood said today he’ll weigh in later on climate-change money for transit. (Photo: HillBuzz) But when […]
Lawmakers Cross Party Lines on Transpo Funding as Debate Rages
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An 18-month extension of existing transportation law cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today, but not before spirited debate on a proposal billed as a compromise with House members who remain strongly opposed to the Senate’s stopgap. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of theSenate environment committee (Photo: Politics Now) The "clean" re-upping of the […]
Obama Talks Urban Policy as LaHood Seeks More Urban Transpo Money
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The White House Office of Urban Affairs, which has drawn criticism for its inactivity at a rocky economic time for the nation’s cities, capped a day-long summit today with a speech by President Obama. Referencing his formative years as a Chicago community organizer, Obama urged the mayors, governors, and Cabinet secretaries who attended the urban […]
Transit Outsourcing Booms — But Are There Safety Trade-offs?
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New Orleans streetcars, such as the one pictured above, are about to be outsourced to a private French company. (Photo: NYT) The Wall Street Journal reports today on the growing number of cities around the country that are in talks to outsource local transit systems to cope with the budgetary pressures of the recession. New […]
Republicans Deem Transpo Stimulus — 6% of Total Spending — a ‘Failure’
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Republicans on the House transportation panel held a press conference today to deem the economic stimulus law a failure, citing low infrastructure spending in the nation’s highest-unemployment states. Rep. John Mica (FL), the committee’s senior GOPer, and six colleagues displayed a chart (depicted at right) that used estimates of stimulus money spent so far by […]
Taking GOP Graphics a Bit Too Seriously
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(Photo: Sen. Kit Bond [R-MO]) Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), one of his chamber’s leading opponents of action against climate change, has swiped the hilariously complicated "chart" that his House colleagues used last month in a futile attempt to portray emissions reductions as just too complex for the American people to stomach. Complaining about the length […]
Did Pelosi Just Side with Oberstar on Transportation Bill?
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That’s the implication of a Roll Call story today that states: "Momentum Builds for Transportation Bill." Here’s how the exchange in question played out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) weekly briefing. Pelosi was asked for her position on a possible second stimulus bill, and she replied: I am committed to the first stimulus. I […]
“Environmental Champion” Boxer Delays Climate Bill Until Fall
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This was supposed to be a big week for action on climate change in the Senate — but it’s ending with Republicans rubbing their hands in glee as the Environment and Public Works Committee delays its unveiling of legislation on carbon emissions. Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: AP) As Reuters reports this […]
Urban Traffic Report Sparks Clever Headlines, But Little Transit Talk
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(Photo: TTI Urban Mobility Report) The latest edition of the Texas Transportation Institute’s influential urban mobility report was released today, prompting a flurry of mainstream media coverage focused largely on a faux-ironic theme that would do Alanis Morrissette proud — the bad economy is giving us less traffic! The TTI found a one-hour drop in […]