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
Sen. Boxer Spoiling For a “Fight” Over Transportation Enhancements
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Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and lead champion for the transportation bill, just spoke on the Senate floor. I didn’t catch all of it, but I tuned in when she was upbraiding her Republican colleagues (read: Sen. Tom Coburn) for holding up the transportation bill. “Where was your […]
Coburn Blocks Quick Senate Vote on Transportation Extension
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Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has placed a “hold” on the transportation extension, along with a bill to continue sanctions against Burma and to provide disaster relief to areas affected by Hurricane Irene and other storms. When just one senator objects to a “unanimous consent” vote — the quickest way for the body to pass legislation […]
How Dangerous is Sen. Coburn’s Amendment to Kill Bike/Ped Funding?
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For the last few days, we’ve been talking a lot about Sen. Tom Coburn’s crusade to remove bike/ped funding from the transportation bill — even just from the six-month extension that just passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. He’s determined to insert an amendment to take out the funds. Ever […]
House Passes Transportation Extension Unanimously
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Well, that wasn’t so hard. The GOP-led House just approved a six-month extension of the transportation law. After about 45 minutes of debate, the chair called for a voice vote, and no one objected. In this way, a unanimous consent vote might be even easier to pass than a vote under “suspended rules” which require […]
House Prepares to Vote on Extension, Coburn Will Try to Kill Bike/Ped
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In a couple of hours, the House will vote on the transportation extension bill – under unanimous consent rules. That means a single vote in opposition could delay passage. It’s unclear how we went from a House determined to cut spending levels by more than 30 percent to a House unanimously committed to passing a […]
House and Senate Agree on 6-Month Transpo Extension
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Just days after a Senate committee asked the full chamber to consider a four-month extension of SAFETEA-LU, new negotiations have replaced that idea with a six-month extension at current spending levels. The bill also extends the gas tax. Over the weekend, the House and Senate decided to combine the long-overdue FAA reauthorization with the pending […]
Obama Includes Infra Bank in His Jobs Push; Mica Rejects It Out of Hand
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Last night, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to present his new jobs plan, a bill he’s calling the American Jobs Act. He relied on the well-worn appeal to people’s patriotic competitiveness by pointing out that China is improving its infrastructure while the U.S. is sitting idly by. Without mentioning the dollar figure […]
House GOP’s 2012 Transportation Budget: Deep Cuts, Especially for Livability
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In about an hour, Congressional appropriators will vote on how much money to allocate for transportation in the next fiscal year. It won’t be pretty. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) is planning deep cuts to many programs, some reminiscent of House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan’s notorious budget proposal, […]
Inhofe Supports Clean Extension, Won’t Vote Against Bike/Ped (This Time)
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The Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously agreed this morning to send a four-month extension of the transportation bill to the full Senate. Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) emphasized that it wasn’t easy to get consensus on the extension, especially with many members wanting to move forward with the full two-year bill. Sen. James Inhofe still […]
The Consequences of Political Foot-Dragging
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The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is meeting tomorrow to discuss a four-month extension to the current transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU. The map above is from a short but powerful document the Federal Transit Administration put out this week explaining “The Impacts of Failing to Extend Surface Transportation Funding” [PDF]. How much transit work would […]
Behind President Obama’s Call For More Infrastructure Projects
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Tomorrow night, President Obama will unveil his jobs plan before a skeptical Congress. It’s unclear how much of the $300 billion proposal will go to infrastructure, but the president has said that will be a centerpiece of the proposal. An infrastructure bank and a new version of the expired Build America Bonds program could also […]
The Senate’s “Dr. No” Says He’ll Block An Extension Unless Bike/Ped Is Cut
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Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn is known around the Senate as “Dr. No” for his propensity to hold up key legislation, single-handedly, because it contains something not to his liking (or sometimes because he’s upset about something else entirely.) On Veterans Day in 2009, he shocked even his GOP colleagues by blocking veterans’ benefits because he […]