ProPublica’s Michael Grabell speaks with Brian Lehrer on his new book “Monday Well Spent?” analyzing the stimulus bill. Other insights: the bill created the tea-party, no one had any idea which projects were stimulus projects, and no one noticed when their teachers weren’t fired. And — the bill wasn’t nearly as effective as it could…
The House Ways and Means Committee voted to to remove funding for transit from the highway trust fund by a 20 to 17 vote. The vote was mostly along party lines, with two Republicans voting against it. In his opening statement, House Ways and Means Committee Chair David Camp (R-MI) said: “The Congressional Budget Office…
An expert in infrastructure financing and former member of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District has been elected to head the California High Speed Rail Authority. Dan Richard of Piedmont has been tapped to chair the authority, which faces withering criticism from mostly Republican critics who say the $98 billion price tag is…
Talks resume Thursday between New York City’s Transport Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It is the first time the two sides will have met since contract talks collapsed late last month. Both sides return to the bargaining table with little animosity, according to a source close to the union. But the calm comes…
The reviews are in on the House transportation bill: “It’s like funding a quit-smoking program by lowering the smoking age to generate more revenue from cigarette taxes.” (USPIRG statement) “It would reverse all the progress we have made in the past 20 years…horrible.” (League of American Bicyclists) “This bill is less about creating jobs and…
House Republicans rolled out parts of a $260 billion transportation infrastructure bill Tuesday, casting the legislation as a major vehicle for job creation and energy production. The five-year bill reauthorizes highway, transit and safety programs but also eliminates or consolidates dozens of existing federal functions. Supporters said its designed to streamline federally-funded projects, cut bureaucratic…
President Obama is making it clear he won’t miss an opportunity to push the narrative that bailing out Detroit was the right thing to do (particularly since Romney didn’t want to.) The Preisdent walked into the showroom of the 70th annual Washington Auto Show this afternoon, where he inspected about 15 new electric and hybrid…
(Michael Grabell, ProPublica) [1]This story was adapted from “Money Well Spent?: The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History [1],” which will be published Tuesday by PublicAffairs. A common criticism of President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package has been that it failed to produce anything – that while the New…
State Senator Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) introduced legislation today that would put high-speed rail back on the November ballot in California. The measure would give voters the chance to de-authorize the $9 billion bond measure passed in 2008. According to Mark Spannagel, spokesman for Senator LaMalfa, the measure would “eliminate the project.” In a statement, LaMalfa…
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood doesn’t think there’s much chance Congress will pass a surface transportation spending bill this year. The bill is on its way to being three years late — it was supposed to be reauthorized in September, 2009. “Given the politics, the number of days that remain, the differences between what the…
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Transportation Nation is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, whose Transportation Initiative is promoting
equitable and sustainable development in communities across the country. More at rockfound.org.
