February « 2009 « The Transport Politic

Mr. Obama's Address to Congress Avoids Transportation Issues, but Mr. Jindal's Reaction Repeats GOP Vegas HSR Lie

February 25th, 2009 |

Hints at broad interest in nation-building at home

Last night, President Barack Obama addressed the nation in a pseudo-State of the Union address in front of a joint session of Congress, with the Supreme Court and the Cabinet in attendance. His comments, meant to encourage the nation in this period of collective doldrums, were focused on energy, health care, and education, with a small element at the end focused on foreign affairs. In his 52-minute speech, he didn’t address how transportation is an integral element of the energy problem, but he did mention public transportation when talking about the stimulus bill:

“Over the

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Dems Round Up FY 2009 with Omnibus Appropriations Act

February 24th, 2009 |

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House and Senate to consider bill that wraps up funding needs for fiscal 2009

With Barack Obama addressing Congress tonight and the work on the budget for FY 2010 beginning on Thursday, House and Senate Democrats have released the draft bill that will account for the last of the remaining federal funding “omnibus” appropriations for fiscal 2009, which doesn’t end until July.

The bill provides the following changes from the budget requested by President Bush a year ago:

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Program
FY 2008 Enacted
Bush ’09 Request
Omnibus ’09 Bill

Highways
$40.2 B
$39.4 B
$40.7 B

State Rail Assistance
$30 M
$100 M
$90 M

Amtrak
$1.33 B
$0.9 B
$1.49 B

FTA
$9.3 B
$10.1 B
$10.1 B

» Capital Projects

$1.57 B
$1.62 B
$1.81

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This Week in Washington: Budget FY 2010

February 24th, 2009 |

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The President will reveal his priorities for the next year in a Congressional address and in his budget proposal

Tonight, President Obama will speak to a joint session of Congress in a pseudo-State of the Union address. He will describe his legislative priorities for the year – in terms of health care, the environment, and potentially transportation issues.

The Overhead Wire suggests that the President’s proposed Livable Community initiative might provide increasing funds for streetcars and other forms of transit, but we haven’t heard much about that program so far. With the economy continuing its downward spiral, it seems likely that this won’t

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Indian Cities Recognize that Solving the Climate Crisis Doesn’t Involve Promoting Automobiles

February 24th, 2009 |

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Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, and Mumbai see large new metro networks as true climate solution

Last week in the New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman wrote about a couple of Americans he met in India who were driving a solar and electricity-powered car around India. They spend their days excitedly showing people there the technology’s potential, hoping to convince lawmakers and entrepreneurs to invest in more sustainable transport. One of those individuals said the following:

“India is full of climate innovators, so spread out across this huge country that many people don’t get to see that these solutions are working right now. We wanted

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