Tanya Snyder
Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Recent Posts
Mica, GOP Leadership Looking to Raise Transportation Spending Levels in Bill
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According to yet another great report from Jeff Davis at Transportation Weekly, House Republican leadership has given House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica permission to seek additional revenues to fund the transportation reauthorization at levels $15 billion higher than initially proposed. One Republican source, quoted in Transportation Weekly, said that given the persistently high unemployment […]
MoveOn Takes On Infrastructure
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The online nonprofit MoveOn.org is taking up the banner of infrastructure investment. Under the subject line “Can your photo create jobs?” the group just sent its 5 million members an email asking them to take a picture of an infrastructure project near them that needs doing. “It could be a bridge, a school, a road, […]
Dealbreaker: Senate Rejects House Budget Due to Lack of Car Subsidies
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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 […]
Senate Saves a Sliver For High-Speed Rail
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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. That’s still starvation wages for the program, […]
Communities Urge Congress: “Don’t X Out Transit”
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Yesterday, transit advocates in more than two dozen cities around the country held rallies to urge Congress to maintain funding for public transportation. The “Don’t X Out Transit” events brought attention to the massive cuts in service and fare hikes that have besieged U.S. transit agencies, and made it clear that the 30 percent funding […]
Senate Strips High-Speed Rail Funding
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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 […]
Federal Support for Smart Planning Is on the Line Today
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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 […]
Obama: “I Will Veto Any Bill” Without Tax Increases on the Wealthy
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In a Rose Garden speech this morning, President Obama soundly rejected Republicans’ push to address the deficit exclusively through spending cuts with no tax increases. He was responding to House Speaker John Boehner, who said last week that tax increases were “off the table.” The outcome of the current deficit-cutting fight could have significant implications […]
Harry Reid Calls Bike Facilities “Absolutely Important”
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Seems like bicycling heroes are coming out of the woodwork these days. I’d missed this in all the coverage of the extension, but was gratified to see that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s opposition to Sen. Coburn’s machinations weren’t just in the interest of smooth procedure. The man actually cares about bike/ped issues. From The […]
The Stranger: If Safer Streets Mean War, We’re Ready for Combat
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Under the headline, “Okay, Fine, It’s War,” Seattle’s The Stranger blog this week published a manifesto “of and by the nondrivers themselves.” They’re sick of being called “militants” for caring about pedestrian safety, and they’re tired of the specter of a “war on cars.” We heartily recommend that you read the whole thing, but here […]
Last-Minute Deal Preserves Bike/Ped Funding. But For How Long?
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UPDATED with comments from Sen. Tom Coburn’s staff. 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 […]
Boehner: Lets Build Highways to Transport Fossil Fuels
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House Speaker John Boehner just gave a talk to the elite Economic Club of Washington. Mixed in with other crazy-talk about taxes being off the table for the super committee (even though they were explicitly on the table when the super committee was formed as part of the debt ceiling agreement) and government regulation being […]