Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about U.S. Senate

USDOT Tries to Resuscitate the HSR Dreams Congress Wants to Bury

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 5, 2011 | No Comments

High-speed rail has had a rough go of it lately. The House refused to give it a dime for next year, while the Senate only managed to allocate a fraction of what the president wanted. President Obama stuck some money back in via his jobs package, but it already seems clear that the package won’t […]

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Dealbreaker: Senate Rejects House Budget Due to Lack of Car Subsidies

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 23, 2011 | No Comments

What’s keeping Congress from passing an extension to the federal budget? Democratic protection of automobile subsidies. After midnight last night, the House finally managed to narrowly pass a budget extension bill, but Senate leaders have already rejected it out of hand, since it includes about half the disaster relief they’d like and cuts $1.5 billion […]

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Senate Saves a Sliver For High-Speed Rail

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 22, 2011 | No Comments

President Obama had sought $8 billion for high-speed rail in 2012. The House-passed budget had exactly zero. The Senate bill approved by the Transportation subcommittee Tuesday followed suit. But the full Appropriations Committee yesterday put $100 million back into next year’s budget for the president’s signature transportation initiative. Senator Dick Durbin, co-chair of the High-Speed […]

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Senate Strips High-Speed Rail Funding

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 20, 2011 | No Comments

The Senate’s transportation budget proposal is still under wraps, but we’re getting some clues about what’s in it. This morning, a subcommittee marked up the transportation and HUD appropriations bill, and the full committee will consider it tomorrow afternoon. Only after that will the draft bill be released. During this morning’s subcommittee markup, though, a […]

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Federal Support for Smart Planning Is on the Line Today

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 20, 2011 | No Comments

A Senate panel will vote today on two budget bills for FY2012, one of which is for transportation and housing programs. The draft of the bill isn’t available until after the subcommittee markup today, but Smart Growth America is calling attention to the fact that it’s important to make sure the bill includes funding for […]

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Last-Minute Deal Preserves Bike/Ped Funding. But For How Long?

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 16, 2011 | No Comments

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has relented on his push to strip Transportation Enhancement funding from the six-month surface transportation extension, clearing the way for Senate passage last night and a White House signature today. In exchange for releasing his stranglehold on the Senate (and the estimated 80,000 workers that could lose their jobs, at least […]

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