Recent Streetsblog SF posts about U.S. Senate

Senate Climate Bill Invests Big in Transit, Reaps Big Deficit Reduction

By Elana Schor | Dec 17, 2009 | No Comments

As the Copenhagen climate talks reach a turning point, congressional negotiations over emissions cuts are taking a back seat to global debate. But some undeniably good news on the domestic front came late yesterday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) described the Copenhagen talks this week as a motivator for […]

McCain & Coburn: Inadvertent Transportation Reformers?

By Elana Schor | Dec 9, 2009 | No Comments

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) are no fans of dedicated federal spending on cleaner transportation. From bike and pedestrian safety to local transit funds, the duo has made a habit of attacking non-road projects as wasteful "pork." Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) (Composite Photo: City-Data.com) And yesterday was no exception, as McCain and […]

Climate’s 17 Undecided Dems Got $2.3M From Transport & Electric Lobbies

By Elana Schor | Nov 30, 2009 | No Comments

The trouble with broad analysis pieces on campaign cash is that they often go for eye-popping numbers while obscuring uncomfortable political realities. For example, GreenWire reported this morning that the 27 senators who remain undecided on the chamber’s pending climate bill took "more than $20 million … over the past two decades from energy interests […]

Three GOP Senators Ask Reid to Call Up Six-Month Transport Bill Extension

By Elana Schor | Nov 17, 2009 | No Comments

The senior Republicans on three of the Senate’s four infrastructure-centric committees today signed onto a letter asking the leaders of Congress’ upper chamber to call up a six-month extension of the 2005 transportation law. Senate environment chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: Politics Now) In the letter, Sens. Jim Inhofe (OK), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), and […]

Grassley: ‘Two or Three Other’ Republicans Open to Climate Change Deal

By Elana Schor | Nov 10, 2009 | No Comments

The Senate’s propensity for filibusters, delay, and fruitless attempts at bipartisan deal-making is earning it quite the reputation these days. And climate change legislation, with its big-ticket implications for transit and urban development in general, is becoming increasingly caught up in the Senate’s peripatetic politics. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (Photo: CNN) The Finance Committee held […]

Why Urban Residents Have a Bone to Pick With Vitter and Bennett

By Elana Schor | Nov 10, 2009 | 3 Comments

In a development that flew largely under the radar on Thursday, the Senate beat back an attempt by David Vitter (R-LA) and Bob Bennett (R-UT) to add a citizenship question to the 2010 U.S. Census, with the goal of no longer counting non-citizens as part of states’ official populations. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) (Photo: Chattahbox) […]

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