Posted on 12/29/2011 5:37:43 PM PST by Libloather
Senate plans swift action on long-delayed transportation bill
By Alexander Bolton - 12/29/11 02:14 PM ET
Senate Democrats expect to pass a long-delayed surface transportation bill soon after they return to Washington next month.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said her colleagues have identified a list of offsets that could be used cover the final $12 billion of the bill’s cost.
Shortly before Congress left town for the holidays, Boxer told The Hill that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had put together a variety of proposals to push the legislation over the finish line.
“There’s good progress going on,” she said. “He’s got a list of pay-fors but I’m not going to say what they are.”
Senators had hoped to pass the $112 billion highway bill before the end of the year but were held up by uncertainty over the final offsets.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters last week the legislation would be among his first priorities in 2012.
Reid said the transportation bill and the Federal Aviation Administration bill “are paramount in my mind.”
“Very conservative [Sen.] Jim Inhofe [R-Okla.], quite progressive Barbara Boxer have come up with an arrangement to extend this for two years,” Reid said. “A very, very good bill.”
Boxer said she expected Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), chairman of the Banking Committee, to mark up the transit portions of her bill very soon.
Johnson had planned to take up the bill in his committee earlier this month but postponed action.
More dollars down the memory hole.
More than likely correct. They'll be throwing billions more down a rat hole, really pathetic.
Well atleast the esteemed senator Barbara Boxer has identified a list of offsets that could be used cover the final $12 billion of the bill’s cost.
Thank you senator, With that extra 12 BILLION you REALLY have save us all now....
WTF?
I have been REALLLLY getting depressed lately.
It’s bad enough dealing with personal issues in life then you have these evil frigs making my life and all of our future even bleaker....
ugh
Maybe these liberal F-tards just don’t get it......
AMERICA HAS NO PROBLEM GETTING AROUND!!!!
If anything you clowns make it HARDER TO GET AROUND
ARGH.....
I thought this bill was similar to the DOE and solyndra. It sets up a tax dollar funded slush fund to award contracts. Another opportunity to reward Obama campaign bundlers just before 2012.
As to the specifics of the transportation bill, there is plenty of room for legitimate argument. I live in the middle of a metro area with some of the worst traffic congestion in the country, and additionally I live in one of those "in the way" neighborhoods that the suburban cowboys would casually destroy to shave two minutes off their commutes. I do sympathize with suburbanites who are spending four hours a day in their cars, but the remedy is simple: they should live closer to their jobs. I tend to favor greater investment in non-automotive options to support walkable, bikeable communities. And I resent roads that become impassable barriers to all non-vehicular traffic. Your mileage may differ.
What a nightmare we have in our government these days.
It isn’t an investment if you can’t sell it or profit from it. We’ve talked about “investing” in roads, bike paths, schools, airports, stadiums, parks, all sorts of things. Well, how about cashing in some of those “investments”?
Can’t do it, because it never was an “investment” to begin with. It was just “spending.”
Airports lose money. Highways lose money. Bike paths lose money. Transit systems lose money. The only transportation systems that make money in this country are railroads and pipelines.
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