Cities and towns could lose one of their best options for funding smart local projects
The Senate Commerce Committee is marking up a version of a long-term transportation funding bill Wednesday morning with no authorization for the popular TIGER program , thus limiting the money available to local communities.
Three changes could dramatically improve the Senate’s draft transportation bill
Ahead of the looming July 31 deadline to pass a new bill (or extend the current law), the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in late June introduced and marked up a full six-year transportation bill. While we think it’s a good starting point, there are some promising amendments that could improve the bill dramatically as it goes forward in the Senate.
Join us for the third online discussion of the Innovative MPO on July 8th
Building on the range of new ideas for metropolitan planning organizations outlined in our Innovative MPO report, we’re hosting the third in a series of online discussions to help MPO staff, board members, and civic leaders find smart ways to use their funding and planning authority get better outcomes for their regions.
Farewell from a smart growth communications veteran
This post is a personal farewell from our friend and colleague David Goldberg, who was the founding communications director for Smart Growth America in 2002 and helped get Transportation for America off the ground in 2008-2009 as communications director. Other than former Gov. Parris Glendening at SGA, David was the longest tenured SGA/T4A employee, helping to steer this small part of the larger movement for transportation reform and creating better places over the last thirteen years. We’ll miss him deeply, and wish him the best in his new endeavors. Here are few thoughts directly from David as he departs.
Compromise in Washington State clears the way for a transportation funding package
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and state legislative leaders indicated today that they have reached agreement on a $15 billion transportation package that also provides $15 billion in local funding authority for Sound Transit, the regional transit agency for the Puget Sound (Seattle) region. The deal looked almost dead last week, but a last-ditch compromise could give Seattle-area residents a little more control over their transportation future.
The economic development potential of passenger rail for downtowns
In a Next City piece, T4America board chair John Robert Smith discussed strong public investment in downtowns in smaller cities — especially those with passenger rail connections — as a smart way to signal to the market that the public sector is committed to downtown.
Congress kicks into high gear on transportation — let’s summarize the action
During an extremely busy week in the Senate in several key committees, a long-term transportation bill was introduced and approved, a bill to invest in and begin upgrading our nation’s passenger rail system was approved, Senate financiers continued discussing possible ways to keep our nation’s transportation fund afloat, and appropriators restored one cut to key transportation program made by the House — though not all, unfortunately.
Senate Committee rolls forward with speedy markup of six-year transportation bill
In a committee markup where the phrase “doing the Lord’s work” was invoked by numerous members sides of the aisle, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sped through a markup of their draft six-year transportation bill in less than an hour this morning, approving it by a unanimous vote with no amendments, save for a manager’s package of amendments agreed to in advance.
Senate’s new transportation bill is a good start, but more should be done for local communities
At long last, there’s finally some progress to report on a new long-term federal transportation bill. Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released their draft six-year transportation bill. While we think it’s a good starting point, there are some promising proposals to improve it dramatically during a planned markup tomorrow.
Statement on the release of the Senate’s long-term transportation reauthorization proposal
Senate EPW bill represents progress toward passage of a long-term bill and a good starting point for debate and improvements. James Corless, director of Transportation for America, issued this statement in response.
It’s past time to elevate the national conversation about infrastructure beyond just the price tag. Learn more about T4America's three simple principles for federal transportation investment.
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