Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Government Still Taking Hands-Off Approach to Cell Phoning While Driving
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was prepared six years ago to seek broad limits on cell phone use by drivers — with or without a hands-free device — but shelved its plans for fear of alienating Congress and chat-loving voters, the New York Times reported today. (Photo: textually.org) The story suggests that senior […]
Senate Agrees on $26.8 Billion Highway Trust Fund Rescue
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The Senate took a major step forward last night in its battle with the House over transportation funding, releasing a plan to give $26.8 billion to the dwindling highway trust fund and — perhaps most importantly, for the long term — to restore the fund’s ability to keep the interest it earns. Senate Finance Committee […]
Know Your Road Lobbyists: The American Highway Users Alliance
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For a 77-year-old nonprofit group with substantial Washington clout, the American Highway Users Alliance keeps a pretty low profile. Its members are not listed on its website, but interested parties are asked a few questions: "Are you outraged by the deaths of 120 people each day on our roads? Are you pro-environment AND pro-highway?" Average […]
Transportation Reform Is Health Reform
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During the Washington budget debate earlier this year, a phrase widely attributed to White House budget director Peter Orszag was rolling off many a reporter’s keyboard: "Health reform is entitlement reform." Orszag’s idea, in a nutshell, is that controlling the nation’s skyrocketing health care costs, which are fueled in part by the obesity epidemic, would […]
Five Down, Five to Go: Plan Linking Transit to Climate Bill Wins Sponsors
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Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported this week that the Obama administration — which often talks about reducing transportation-based emissions — is staying mum on a bill that would devote a guaranteed share of revenues from carbon regulation to transit, bike paths, and other green modes of transport. But that doesn’t mean the proposal, otherwise known as […]
Team Obama’s Transportation Chain of Command: “A Bit Complicated”
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It’s no secret that key leaders of the House transportation panel and the White House economic team don’t get along — from quips about shovel skills to a stimulus "shouting match," committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and his top lieutenant, Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-OR), have become two of their party’s leading Obama administration skeptics. Rep. […]
White House Staying Quiet for Now on Transit’s Role in Climate Bill
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Delivering his climate-change message to Congress yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned that fuel-efficiency advances secured by the Obama administration would not be enough to reduce emissions from transportation — not without encouraging Americans to drive less. Transportation Secretary LaHood said today he’ll weigh in later on climate-change money for transit. Photo: HillBuzz But when […]
Lawmakers Cross Party Lines on Transpo Funding as Debate Rages
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An 18-month extension of existing transportation law cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today, but not before spirited debate on a proposal billed as a compromise with House members who remain strongly opposed to the Senate’s stopgap. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Senate environment committee (Photo: Politics Now) The "clean" re-upping of […]
Voinovich Joins House Dems in Saying No to Transpo Funding Stopgap
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Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) allied with House Democrats today. (Photo: UPI) The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will move tomorrow on a White House-backed extension of the four-year-old federal transportation law, but at least one of its members is already opposed. George Voinovich (R-OH) linked arms with House Democratic leaders on the transportation panel […]
Obama Talks Urban Policy as LaHood Seeks More Urban Transpo Money
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Obama during the "sprawl is over" speech last February The White House Office of Urban Affairs, which has drawn criticism for its inactivity at a rocky economic time for the nation’s cities, capped a day-long summit today with a speech by President Obama. Referencing his formative years as a Chicago community organizer, Obama urged the […]
Transit Outsourcing Booms — But Are There Safety Trade-offs?
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New Orleans streetcars, such as the one pictured above, are about to be outsourced to a private French company. (Photo: NYT) The Wall Street Journal reports today on the growing number of cities around the country that are in talks to outsource local transit systems to cope with the budgetary pressures of the recession. New […]
Bachmann Says Walking and Biking Have Nothing to Do With Public Health
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Back when the Senate kicked off its health care debate, Republicans tested out a new line of attack against health committee chairman Edward Kennedy’s (D-MA) draft bill: Its investment in encouraging walking and biking amounts to inexcusable government waste. Never mind that walking and biking have scientifically proven public health benefits. Never mind that the […]