Monday, June 18, 2012

Here We Go Again

It seems like Congress just extended the federal transportation bill, Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), but Transportation Issues Daily says that there are only about six legislative days in which to pass a new bill or start drafting another extention, as the current extention expires June 30.


The prevailing thought is that an extention is probably what will happen, rather than a new bill. Senator Boxer maintains that as much as 80% of the bill is worked out but there are big unresolved differences such as environmental streamlining and Keystone XL.

The question now is apparently the length of the extension. There is apparently the risk of a gamble that would cause the US Department of Transportation to shut down for a time. Anyway, read the story at the link ahead to see all the variables involved in getting either a new bill or an extention passed.

No comments:


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.