Recent Streetsblog LA posts about James Oberstar

Senate Starts Work on New Transport Bill, With House Version as a Guide

By Elana Schor | Mar 4, 2010 | No Comments

The Senate today took its first steps towards voting on a new long-term federal transportation bill, with environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) vowing to take up a successor to the 2005 infrastructure law before 2011 and indicating she would use the House’s already-introduced version as a framework. Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA), […]

How Can Transit Backers Sway Conservatives? Oberstar Joins the Debate

By Elana Schor | Feb 2, 2010 | 1 Comment

In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington, transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum. Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers, urbanists and suburbanites — and, of course, Democrats and Republicans? Highways and transit, side by side […]

Congress, Associated Press, Argue Whether Stimulus Actually Stimulated Anything

By Elana Schor | Jan 11, 2010 | No Comments

The Associated Press published a piece today that, after putting "economists and statisticians" to work on analyzing $21 billion in federal stimulus money for transportation, reached a volatile conclusion: (Photo: WBEZ) Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama’s argument that more […]

House Jobs Bill Mimics the Stimulus: $27.5B for Roads, $8.4B for Transit

By Elana Schor | Dec 15, 2009 | No Comments

The House is slated to vote as soon as tomorrow on a job-creation package that includes $27.5 billion for highways and $8.4 billion for transit, according to a transportation committee document obtained by Streetsblog Capitol Hill. House transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) (Photo: Bike Portland via Flickr) That funding divide mirrors the spending levels […]

‘The Concrete is Cracking’: Front-Loaded New Transport Bill Gains Steam

By Elana Schor | Nov 6, 2009 | No Comments

With the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 10.2 percent today, its highest level in 26 years, a palpable shift is occurring on Capitol Hill. House transportation chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) (Photo: STLToday) For weeks, we’ve heard senior Democrats and the transit industry make the case for more transportation spending as a potent job creator, but the […]

Transportation Policy Becomes the Proverbial Tree Falling in the Forest

By Elana Schor | Oct 28, 2009 | No Comments

Halfway through this afternoon’s rally in support of a new federal transportation bill, there came an accidental but telling moment. A group of tourists, attracted by the hundreds of orange flags planted in the National Mall for the rally, walked through the event and whispered questions to attendees about its purpose. Once their curiosity was […]

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