Recent Streetsblog SF posts about U.S. Senate

The Senate’s “Dr. No” Says He’ll Block An Extension Unless Bike/Ped Is Cut

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 6, 2011 | No Comments

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 […]

No Commitment to Bike-Ped Funding in Senate Transpo Bill Outline

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 19, 2011 | No Comments

The Senate EPW Committee just posted a transportation bill outline on their website, and despite previous assurances by committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA), there appears to be no dedicated funding for bicycling and pedestrian programs in the bill. The outline focuses on the consolidation of programs and streamlining project delivery, much like the House bill. […]

25 Senators Demand Robust Transit Funding

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 23, 2011 | No Comments

In a letter to Finance Committee leaders [PDF], 25 senators today urged adequate funding for mass transit in the next transportation authorization bill. The letter notes that public transportation systems find themselves in a budgetary crisis just as more and more people, driven by $4/gallon gas, are seeking out transportation options. During the worst economic […]

Obama Admin Will Make Its Transportation Push During the Next Congress

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 28, 2010 | No Comments

President Obama is “going to throw his support behind a six-year reauthorization of the transportation program” in Congress. That was the word today from Roy Kienitz, who represented the Transportation Department today as he testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In a meeting with transportation reform advocates last week, Secretary Ray LaHood […]

Excitement at Transbay Event, But Federal Transportation Bill Uncertain

By Matthew Roth | Aug 12, 2010 | 9 Comments

Senator Barbara Boxer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, US DOT Secretary Ray Lahood, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Transbay Joint Powers Authority Board Chairman and SFMTA CEO Nat Ford at the Transbay Transit Center groundbreaking. Photos: Matthew Roth. Though most of the California political class celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Transbay Transit Center with U.S. […]

The Problems With Ports, or Why We Need a National Freight Act

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 6, 2010 | No Comments

Maybe you commute by train, or maybe you’ve switched from driving to biking. But your stuff is still traveling the country by diesel truck. Containers at the Port of Oakland. Photo: NOAA Nearly a quarter of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions come from freight. The movement of goods from port of entry to a store near […]

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