Innovation NewsBriefs Vol. 22 No. 25 With Congress in session for only 11 days during the month of September, there is not enough time to act upon substantive transportation legislation which expires at the end of the month. Consequently, both the Senate and House transportation leaders have agreed to support a temporary extension of the […]
View this complete post...Archive for the ‘Innovation Newsbriefs’ Category
Legislative Prospects for the Transportation Bill: An Update
Monday, August 22nd, 2011The continuing stalemate over FAA funding offers a foretaste of what awaits us in September when Congress will get down to discussing the transportation bill. Only the stakes will be much higher and the consequences of a deadlock much more serious. That is the sober assessment offered by seasoned Washington observers on both sides of the political divide.
View this complete post...The Senate Transportation Bill Lacks Political Momentum
Monday, July 25th, 2011Innovation NewsBriefs Vol. 22 No. 20 The release by the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee of its reauthorization proposal and its July 21 hearing on “Legislative Issues for Transportation Reauthorization” were greeted with a muted reaction. Despite Sen. Boxer’s official optimism, we have encountered widespread skepticism about the bill’s chances of gaining political […]
View this complete post...Adjusting to Fiscal and Political Realities
Monday, June 20th, 2011The practical implications of this policy for the federal-aid transportation program are unambiguous: federal budget authority in FY 2012 and beyond will be limited to tax receipts flowing into the Highway Trust Fund. Those revenues (plus interest) will amount to an estimated $36.9 billion in 2011 according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)— $31.8 billion will be credited to the Highway Account and $5.1 billion to the Transit Account. Over the next ten years, CBO estimates these revenues will grow at an average rate of a little more than one percent per year, largely reflecting expected growth in motor fuel consumption. (“The Highway Trust Fund and Paying for Highways,” testimony of Joseph Kile, Asst. Director of CBO, before the Senate Finance Committee, May 17, 2011).
View this complete post...California’s Bullet Train — On the Road to Bankruptcy
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011For California’s high-speed rail boosters including their chief cheerleader, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the month of May must have felt like a month from hell. First came a scathing report by California legislature’s fiscal watchdog, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), questioning the rail authority’s unrealistic cost estimates and its decision to build the first $5.5 billion segment in the sparsely populated Central Valley between Borden and Corcoran.
View this complete post...Pragmatic Funding Decisions Mark the Final Round of Rail Grants
Thursday, May 12th, 2011Pragmatic funding decisions have marked the third and final round of awards in the Administration’s $10 billion High-Speed Rail Program. The awards, announced on May 9, confirmed what critics, including this column, have long maintained: the White House high-speed rail initiative, stripped of its high-blown rhetoric, is in fact a program of modest incremental improvements to existing Amtrak passenger rail services. As such, the initiative represents a small but useful step in restoring more reliable intercity passenger rail service— but it hardly deserves the hype and exaggerated claims that have been used to characterize it. Rather, it is a “victory for incrementalism,” in the words of Scott Thomasson, policy director of the Progressive Policy Institute.
View this complete post...Skepticism Greets US DOT’s Draft Transportation Bill
Thursday, May 5th, 2011An undated 498-page draft of US DOT’s legislative proposal for surface transportation reauthorization, the “Transportation Opportunities Act,” has been making the rounds in Washington for the past week. Its publication, however, has been largely ignored by the transportation community. What would ordinarily be an eagerly awaited event and the source of much comment, has passed virtually unnoticed…Partly, it is because the DOT draft contains no surprises: it merely restates the proposals already revealed in the President’s FY 2012 Budget request. But more importantly, the draft has been ignored by Washington stakeholders and political observers because it has been judged to lack political savvy and realism.
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