House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar has asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study on state transportation planning. GAO has identified four questions that their report will address:
1. What transportation planning activities are performed by state DOTs?
2. To what extent do state DOTs make use of performance measures in their decision-making and planning processes?
3. What challenges do state DOTs encounter in developing transportation plans?
4. What role does the U.S. Department of Transportation have in overseeing state transportation planning activities, and what opportunities, if any, exist to improve oversight and enhance statewide planning activities?
APA has been invited to offer comments and information to GAO as part of their work. APA will be compiling information and meeting with GAO in early December.
The Transportation Planning Division invites you to provide input on these questions, particularly issues related to the challenges (both for the state and for the MPOs and localities in working with the state) and opportunities to improve state transportation planning.
As always, specific comments are most helpful and we need input by December.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Senate Action to Extend SAFETEA-LU No Longer Imminent
Senate Action to Extend SAFETEA-LU No Longer Imminent
AASHTO, November 6, 2009
"As reported in Transportation Weekly, Senate leaders are delaying plans to take up a six-month extension of the surface transportation act and it doesn't appear such legislation will be taken up any time soon.
It had been expected that leadership in the Senate would attempt to move the bill late this week or early next week, but published reports indicate those plans are no longer imminent.
'We are disappointed that the Senate was unable to move the extension forward,' said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. 'We will continue to work with the House and Senate leadership on passage of authorization as soon as that proves possible. In the meantime, we will work to assure that there is no interruption in the program when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires. States need certainty of long term funding as soon as possible, so they can plan for the future and enter into long term contracts that create jobs and support large and small businesses.'
Currently, the federal highway program is being funded by a CR approved by the House and Senate, and signed by the President to keep the government running at current budget levels through December 18.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-MN, has opposed a lengthy extension of SAFETEA-LU because it would delay passage of the committee's six-year, $500 billion plan. The measure has been marked up by subcommittee and is awaiting full committee action.
In late September, by a vote of 335 to 85, the House agreed to support a three-month extension of authorization for the highway and transit programs. The Senate, however, failed to approve the measure."
AASHTO, November 6, 2009
"As reported in Transportation Weekly, Senate leaders are delaying plans to take up a six-month extension of the surface transportation act and it doesn't appear such legislation will be taken up any time soon.
It had been expected that leadership in the Senate would attempt to move the bill late this week or early next week, but published reports indicate those plans are no longer imminent.
'We are disappointed that the Senate was unable to move the extension forward,' said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. 'We will continue to work with the House and Senate leadership on passage of authorization as soon as that proves possible. In the meantime, we will work to assure that there is no interruption in the program when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires. States need certainty of long term funding as soon as possible, so they can plan for the future and enter into long term contracts that create jobs and support large and small businesses.'
Currently, the federal highway program is being funded by a CR approved by the House and Senate, and signed by the President to keep the government running at current budget levels through December 18.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-MN, has opposed a lengthy extension of SAFETEA-LU because it would delay passage of the committee's six-year, $500 billion plan. The measure has been marked up by subcommittee and is awaiting full committee action.
In late September, by a vote of 335 to 85, the House agreed to support a three-month extension of authorization for the highway and transit programs. The Senate, however, failed to approve the measure."
Friday, October 16, 2009
Buses Get Their Own 'Clunkers' Program
Buses Get Their Own 'Clunkers' Program
Emily Vaughan
Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:35 AM
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
"The White House has touted its $3 billion "Cash for Clunkers" stimulus program as an extraordinary success, despite criticism that the program's actual environmental impact has been exaggerated. But while Clunkers has drawn the headlines, the administration has quietly sent millions more to state and local governments under a different program with similar goals: replacing old, diesel-powered buses with ones using cleaner technology.
It's not a high-profile program, and it wasn't even designed specifically to replace gas-guzzling vehicles. But the Transportation Department's Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) program has spent nearly half its $100 million grant budget to replace diesel buses with cleaner and more efficient hybrid-electric and fully electric models. Like Cash for Clunkers, these grants are intended to be dual-purposed: stimulate the economy and clean the environment.
The agency received more than $2 billion worth of proposals, a "robust" proportion of which were for the replacement of diesel buses with cleaner technology, Federal Transit Administration officials said. Of the projects that received TIGGER funding, 16 were for bus replacement in 13 different states. FTA suggested that the "readiness" factor played a large part in their choosing these projects. "Nothing is faster than buying a bus and putting it into service," an FTA official said.
Hybrid buses cost $150,000 to $180,000 more than their higher-polluting counterparts, but they offer better fuel economy and emit less carbon dioxide and smog-causing nitrogen oxides. They made up 3.8 percent of the national fleet as of January 2008, according to the American Public Transportation Association, up from 2 percent in 2006 and 0.2 percent in 2003. All told, the TIGGER grant program will put more than 185 new, lower-emissions buses on the road.
In addition to cleaner buses, proponents of the grant program pointed to the creation of green manufacturing jobs as a benefit that would result from building new hybrid coaches. The Illinois Department of Transportation, for example, estimates its project to replace 31 paratransit buses with hybrids will create 24 manufacturing jobs. The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, which includes Reno, Nev., will be able to hire back 10 drivers laid off due to the recession.
Yet job creation isn't necessarily attributable to the TIGGER program alone. Eight of the participating transit agencies were planning to buy buses of some kind anyway -- the grant money just enabled them to upgrade to clean-tech models. Of the agencies that made new orders with the grant money, many of them said they were simply expediting existing multiyear plans to replace older diesel buses with cleaner technology.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation was the single largest recipient of money for bus replacement and got the second-largest grant overall. Encouraged by its existing hybrids, which require less maintenance and get roughly 20 percent better fuel economy than traditional buses, the department will use its $7 million to purchase two fuel cells and upgrade 20 diesel buses to hybrid-electric (at a total of $3.4 million).
'They do improve emissions somewhat,' said Michael Sanders, transit administrator for ConnDOT's Bureau of Public Transportation. But he suggested that the agency wouldn't have invested in the pricier hybrids without the federal money. 'They're not dollar-for-dollar cost-effective in hard cash," he added. "The difference is public relations, emissions reductions.'
Henry Jacoby, co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT, was an outspoken critic of the Clunkers program. He calculated that each ton of carbon reduced cost the government more than $160 -- an expensive way to reduce emissions. 'Cash for Clunkers was... being sold as a program to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but that's not what it was for,' he added. 'It was a program to help the auto industry.' He was similarly skeptical of bus replacement as a cost-effective way to reduce emissions.
'The chief problem with the Cash for Clunkers program from [an] environmental standpoint was the small improvement for mileage that the law required,' said Michael Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, who was also a critic of the program. Cash for Clunkers only required an improvement of four miles per gallon in fuel efficiency in order for drivers to qualify for its subsidy.
Actual environmental improvements will vary substantially among the grant recipients depending on the specific buses ordered, the types of routes they run and the bus models they're replacing. CyRide in Ames, Iowa, which is replacing buses dating from the early- to mid-1980s, will see a steeper reduction in emissions than agencies using newer diesel buses, which already include many improvements to limit the release of pollutants. Still, switching to hybrids is a stronger minimum improvement. A similar requirement in Cash for Clunkers would have improved the program, Gerrard said.
Hybrid advocates acknowledge that hybrids are only a transitional technology. 'Hybrid bus technology is terrific,' said Bill Vincent, direct of the Bus Rapid Transit program at the nonprofit Breakthrough Technologies Institute. 'But it's a transition technology. After all, hybrid buses still rely on petroleum.'
Short of replacing all diesel buses with hybrids, transit agencies could maximize emissions reductions by replacing buses on routes that have a lot of stop-and-go, congested traffic, recommended Robb Barnitt, senior project engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is part of the Department of Energy. These types of routes are particularly conducive to hybrids, as they can operate in electric mode at low speeds.
'I think it's a technology that's only scratching the surface,' he said. 'It certainly grabbed a toehold in transit, and it will only continue.' "
Emily Vaughan
Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:35 AM
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
"The White House has touted its $3 billion "Cash for Clunkers" stimulus program as an extraordinary success, despite criticism that the program's actual environmental impact has been exaggerated. But while Clunkers has drawn the headlines, the administration has quietly sent millions more to state and local governments under a different program with similar goals: replacing old, diesel-powered buses with ones using cleaner technology.
It's not a high-profile program, and it wasn't even designed specifically to replace gas-guzzling vehicles. But the Transportation Department's Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) program has spent nearly half its $100 million grant budget to replace diesel buses with cleaner and more efficient hybrid-electric and fully electric models. Like Cash for Clunkers, these grants are intended to be dual-purposed: stimulate the economy and clean the environment.
The agency received more than $2 billion worth of proposals, a "robust" proportion of which were for the replacement of diesel buses with cleaner technology, Federal Transit Administration officials said. Of the projects that received TIGGER funding, 16 were for bus replacement in 13 different states. FTA suggested that the "readiness" factor played a large part in their choosing these projects. "Nothing is faster than buying a bus and putting it into service," an FTA official said.
Hybrid buses cost $150,000 to $180,000 more than their higher-polluting counterparts, but they offer better fuel economy and emit less carbon dioxide and smog-causing nitrogen oxides. They made up 3.8 percent of the national fleet as of January 2008, according to the American Public Transportation Association, up from 2 percent in 2006 and 0.2 percent in 2003. All told, the TIGGER grant program will put more than 185 new, lower-emissions buses on the road.
In addition to cleaner buses, proponents of the grant program pointed to the creation of green manufacturing jobs as a benefit that would result from building new hybrid coaches. The Illinois Department of Transportation, for example, estimates its project to replace 31 paratransit buses with hybrids will create 24 manufacturing jobs. The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, which includes Reno, Nev., will be able to hire back 10 drivers laid off due to the recession.
Yet job creation isn't necessarily attributable to the TIGGER program alone. Eight of the participating transit agencies were planning to buy buses of some kind anyway -- the grant money just enabled them to upgrade to clean-tech models. Of the agencies that made new orders with the grant money, many of them said they were simply expediting existing multiyear plans to replace older diesel buses with cleaner technology.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation was the single largest recipient of money for bus replacement and got the second-largest grant overall. Encouraged by its existing hybrids, which require less maintenance and get roughly 20 percent better fuel economy than traditional buses, the department will use its $7 million to purchase two fuel cells and upgrade 20 diesel buses to hybrid-electric (at a total of $3.4 million).
'They do improve emissions somewhat,' said Michael Sanders, transit administrator for ConnDOT's Bureau of Public Transportation. But he suggested that the agency wouldn't have invested in the pricier hybrids without the federal money. 'They're not dollar-for-dollar cost-effective in hard cash," he added. "The difference is public relations, emissions reductions.'
Henry Jacoby, co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT, was an outspoken critic of the Clunkers program. He calculated that each ton of carbon reduced cost the government more than $160 -- an expensive way to reduce emissions. 'Cash for Clunkers was... being sold as a program to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but that's not what it was for,' he added. 'It was a program to help the auto industry.' He was similarly skeptical of bus replacement as a cost-effective way to reduce emissions.
'The chief problem with the Cash for Clunkers program from [an] environmental standpoint was the small improvement for mileage that the law required,' said Michael Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, who was also a critic of the program. Cash for Clunkers only required an improvement of four miles per gallon in fuel efficiency in order for drivers to qualify for its subsidy.
Actual environmental improvements will vary substantially among the grant recipients depending on the specific buses ordered, the types of routes they run and the bus models they're replacing. CyRide in Ames, Iowa, which is replacing buses dating from the early- to mid-1980s, will see a steeper reduction in emissions than agencies using newer diesel buses, which already include many improvements to limit the release of pollutants. Still, switching to hybrids is a stronger minimum improvement. A similar requirement in Cash for Clunkers would have improved the program, Gerrard said.
Hybrid advocates acknowledge that hybrids are only a transitional technology. 'Hybrid bus technology is terrific,' said Bill Vincent, direct of the Bus Rapid Transit program at the nonprofit Breakthrough Technologies Institute. 'But it's a transition technology. After all, hybrid buses still rely on petroleum.'
Short of replacing all diesel buses with hybrids, transit agencies could maximize emissions reductions by replacing buses on routes that have a lot of stop-and-go, congested traffic, recommended Robb Barnitt, senior project engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is part of the Department of Energy. These types of routes are particularly conducive to hybrids, as they can operate in electric mode at low speeds.
'I think it's a technology that's only scratching the surface,' he said. 'It certainly grabbed a toehold in transit, and it will only continue.' "
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Bills in Senate Environment and Puiblic Works Committee
Senate Bills, 111th Congress
Bill Date Referred Sponsor Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• S. 1733 30-Sep-09 John F. Kerry A bill to create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy.
• S. 1712 24-Sep-09 Harry Reid A bill to promote water efficiency, conservation, and adaptation, and for other purposes.
• S. 1701 23-Sep-09 Sherrod Brown A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to require corrosion mitigation and prevention plans for bridges receiving Federal funding, and for other purposes.
• S. 1702 23-Sep-09 Mark Udall A bill to amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to facilitate the establishment of additional or expanded public target ranges in certain states.
• S. 1666 14-Sep-09 Susan M. Collins A bill to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to satisfy certain conditions before issuing to producers of mid-level ethanol blends a waiver from certain requirements under the Clean Air Act, and for other purposes.
• S. 1660 10-Sep-09 Amy Klobuchar A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to reduce the emissions of formaldehyde from composite wood products, and for other purposes.
• S. 1662 10-Sep-09 Sherrod Brown A bill to amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to modify the period used to calculate certain unemployment rates, to encourage the development of business incubators, and for other purposes.
• S. 1622 06-Aug-09 John Barrasso A bill to limit the applicability of a certain judicial ruling to sources regulated under section 202 of the Clean Air Act.
• S. 1641 06-Aug-09 Debbie Stabenow A bill to modify and waive certain requirements under title 23, United States Code, to assist States with a high unemployment rate in carrying out Federal-aid highway construction projects, and for other purposes.
• S. 1566 03-Aug-09 Mark Begich A bill to create the American Arctic Adaptation Grant Program to prevent or mitigate effects of Arctic climate change and for other purposes.
• S. 1536 29-Jul-09 Charles E. Schumer A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to reduce the amount of Federal highway funding available to States that do not enact a law prohibiting an individual from writing, sending, or reading text messages while operating a motor vehicle.
• S. 1534 29-Jul-09 Robert C. Byrd A bill to complete construction of the 13-States Appalachian development highway system, and for other purposes.
• S. 1535 29-Jul-09 Dianne Feinstein Protect America's Wildlife Act of 2009 .
• S. 1519 27-Jul-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to provide for the eradication and control of nutria in Maryland, Louisiana, and other coastal States.
• S. 1498 22-Jul-09 Barbara Boxer An original bill to provide an extension of highway programs authorized under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.
• S. 1471 20-Jul-09 David Vitter A bill to direct the Secretary of the Army to carry out certain water control projects at Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and for other purposes.
• S. 1428 09-Jul-09 Sheldon Whitehouse A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to phase out the use of mercury in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda, and for other purposes.
• S. 1421 09-Jul-09 Carl Levin Asian Carp Prevention and Control Act
• S. 1397 06-Jul-09 Amy Klobuchar A bill to authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants for electronic device recycling research, development, and demonstration projects, and for other purposes. (Environmental Protection)
• S. 1318 22-Jun-09 Judd Gregg A bill to prohibit the use of stimulus funds for signage indicating that a project is being carried out using those funds.
• S. 1311 19-Jun-09 Roger Wicker A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to expand and strengthen cooperative efforts to monitor, restore, and protect the resource productivity, water quality, and marine ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico.
• S. 1266 15-Jun-09 Amy Klobuchar A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Transportation to require that broadband conduit be installed as part of certain highway construction projects, and for other purposes.
• S. 1215 09-Jun-09 Robert P., Jr. Casey Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act
• S. 1214 09-Jun-09 Joseph I. Lieberman A bill to conserve fish and aquatic communities in the United States through partnerships that foster fish habitat conservation, to improve the quality of life for the people of the United States, and for other purposes.
• S. 1156 21-May-09 Tom Harkin A bill to amend the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users to reauthorize and improve the safe routes to school program.
• S. 1115 21-May-09 Kay Bailey Hutchison A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to prohibit the imposition of new tolls on the Federal-aid system, and for other purposes.
• S. 1148 21-May-09 Chuck Grassley A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to modify a provision relating to the renewable fuel program.
• S. 1098 20-May-09 Ron Wyden A bill to establish EnergySmart transport corridors to promote the planning and development of measures that will increase the energy efficiency of the Interstate System and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and other environmental pollutants, and for other purposes.
• S. 1095 20-May-09 Ron Wyden A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to convert the renewable fuel standard into a low-carbon fuel standard, and for other purposes.
• S. 1059 18-May-09 Mike Crapo A bill to permit commercial vehicles at weights up to 129,000 pounds to use certain highways of the Interstate System in the State of Idaho which would provide significant savings in the transportation of goods throughout the Unites States, and for other purposes.
• S. 1035 13-May-09 Kirsten Gillibrand A bill to enhance the ability of drinking water utilities in the United States to develop and implement climate change adaptation programs and policies, and for other purposes.
• S. 1005 07-May-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act to improve water and wastewater infrastructure in the United States.
• S. 971 05-May-09 Charles E. Schumer A bill to implement a pilot program to establish truck parking facilities.
• S. 933 30-Apr-09 Carl Levin A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002 to reauthorize programs to address remediation of contaminated sediment.
• S. 937 30-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure that sewage treatment plants monitor for and report discharges of raw sewage, and for other purposes.
• S. 936 30-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize appropriations for sewer overflow control grants.
• S. 943 30-Apr-09 John Thune A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to permit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the lifecycle greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements for renewable fuel production, and for other purposes.
• S. 930 29-Apr-09 Patty Murray A bill to promote secure ferry transportation and for other purposes.
• S. 903 28-Apr-09 Kay Bailey Hutchison A bill to permit a State to elect to receive the State's contributions to the Highway Trust Fund in lieu of its Federal-aid Highway program apportionment for the next fiscal year, and for other purposes.
• S. 878 23-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to modify provisions relating to beach monitoring, and for other purposes.
• S. 884 23-Apr-09 Jeff Bingaman A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to remove privatized highway miles as a factor in apportioning highway funding.
• S. 856 22-Apr-09 Susan M. Collins A bill to establish a commercial truck highway safety demonstration program in the State of Maine, and for other purposes.
• S. 849 22-Apr-09 Thomas R. Carper A bill to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study on black carbon emissions.
• S. 854 22-Apr-09 George V. Voinovich A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to update a program to provide assistance for the planning, design, and construction of treatment works to intercept, transport, control, or treat municipal combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows, and to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to update certain guidance used to develop and determine the financial capability of communities to implement clean water infrastructure programs.
• S. 805 22-Apr-09 Bill Nelson A bill to provide for a comprehensive study by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to assess the water management, needs, and conservation of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System.
• S. 785 02-Apr-09 Lisa Murkowski Southeast Alaska Timber Industry Retooling and Restructuring Act .
• S. 791 02-Apr-09 Max Baucus Surface Transportation Safety Act of 2009
• S. 787 02-Apr-09 Russell D. Feingold Clean Water Restoration Act
• S. 779 01-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend titles 23 and 49, United States Code, to modify provisions relating to the length and weight limitations for vehicles operating on Federal-aid highways, and for other purposes.
• S. 759 01-Apr-09 Jeff Bingaman A bill to amend the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century to reauthorize a provision relating to additional contract authority for States with Indian reservations.
• S. 724 26-Mar-09 John Barrasso A bill to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to temporarily prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from considering global climate change as a natural or manmade factor in determining whether a species is a threatened or endangered species, and for other purposes.
• S. 732 26-Mar-09 Daniel K. Akaka Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2009
• S. 690 25-Mar-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to amend the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act to reauthorize the Act.
• S. 696 25-Mar-09 Sam Brownback A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to include a definition of fill material.
• S. 675 24-Mar-09 Carl Levin A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prohibit the sale of dishwashing detergent in the United States if the detergent contains a high level of phosphorus, and for other purposes.
• S. 655 19-Mar-09 Tim Johnson A bill to amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to ensure adequate funding for conservation and restoration of wildlife, and for other purposes.
• S. 636 18-Mar-09 John Thune A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to confirm the definition of renewable biomass to the definition given the term in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.
• S. 584 12-Mar-09 Tom Harkin A bill to ensure that all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, children, older individuals, and individuals with disabilities, are able to travel safely and conveniently on and across federally funded streets and highways.
• S. 591 12-Mar-09 Harry Reid A bill to establish a National Commission on High-Level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel, and for other purposes.
• S. 575 11-Mar-09 Thomas R. Carper A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to develop plans and targets for States and metropolitan planning organizations to develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, and for other purposes.
• S. 536 05-Mar-09 Ron Wyden A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to modify the definition of the term "renewable biomass".
• s. 529 05-Mar-09 Joseph I. Lieberman A bill to assist in the conservation of rare fields and rare canids by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation programs of countries within the range of rare felid and rare canid populations and projects of persons with demonstrated expertise in the conservation of rare felid and rare canid populations.
• S. 527 05-Mar-09 John Thune A bill to amend the Clean Air act to prohibit the issuance of permits under title V of that Act for certain emissions from agricultural production.
• S. Res. 64 04-Mar-09 Barbara Boxer A resolution recognizing the need for the Environmental Protection Agency to end decades of delay and utilize existing authority under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to comprehensively regulate coal combustion waste and the need for the Tennessee Valley Authority to be a national leader in technological innovation, low-cost power, and environmental stewardship.
• S. 489 26-Feb-09 David Vitter A bill to amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to authorize hunting under certain circumstances.
• S. 479 25-Feb-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to amend the Chesapeake Bay Initiative Act of 1998 to provide for the continuing authorization of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network.
• S. 480 25-Feb-09 Sherrod Brown A bill to establish the Office of Regional Economic Adjustment in the Department of Commerce, to assist regions affected by sudden and severe economic dislocation by coordinating Federal, State, and local resources for economic adjustment and by providing technical assistance, and for other purposes.
• S. 462 24-Feb-09 Barbara Boxer A bill to amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit the importation, exportation, transportation, and sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, of any live animal of any prohibited wildlife species, and for other purposes.
• S. 432 12-Feb-09 Jeff Bingaman A bill to amend the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental and Native American Public Policy Act of 1992 to honor the legacy of Stewart L. Udall, and for other purposes.
• S. Res. 42 12-Feb-09 Barbara Boxer An original resolution authorizing expenditures by the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
• S. 430 12-Feb-09 James M. Inhofe A bill to amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to reauthorize that Act, and for other purposes.
• S. 430 12-Feb-09 James M. Inhofe A bill to amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to reauthorize that Act, and for other purposes.
• S. 398 09-Feb-09 Mike Crapo A bill to permit commercial vehicles at weights up to 129, 000 pounds to use certain highways of the Interstate System in the State of Idaho which would provide significant savings in the transportation of goods throughout the United States, and for other purposes.
• S. 387 05-Feb-09 Richard Durbin A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 211 South Court Street, Rockford, Illinois, as the "Stanley J. Roszkowski United States Courthouse".
• S. 377 04-Feb-09 Chuck Grassley A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 131 East 4th Street in Davenport, Iowa, as the "James A. Leach United States Courthouse".
• S. 373 03-Feb-09 Bill Nelson A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal.
• S. 308 22-Jan-09 Max Baucus A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to improve economic opportunity and development in rural States through highway investment, and for other purposes.
• S. 309 22-Jan-09 Max Baucus A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to improve highway transportation in the United States, including rural and metropolitan areas.
• S. 232 14-Jan-09 Lamar Alexander A bill to prohibit the importation of certain low-level radioactive waste into the United States.
• S. 231 14-Jan-09 Joseph I. Lieberman A bill to designate a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.
• S. 237 14-Jan-09 Carl Levin A bill to establish a collaborative program to protect the Great Lakes, and for other purposes.
• S. 197 09-Jan-09 Russell D. Feingold A bill to assist in the conservation of cranes by supporting and providing, through projects of persons and organizations with expertise in crane conservation, financial resources for the conservation programs of countries the activities of which directly or indirectly affect cranes and the ecosystem of cranes.
• S. 198 09-Jan-09 Bernard Sanders A bill to direct the Secretary of Transportation to waive non-Federal share requirements for certain transportation programs and activities through September 30, 2009.
House Bills Sent to Senate Committee
House Bills, 111th Congress
Bill Referred Sponsor Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• H.R. 1053 01-Oct-09 Rep. Robert J. Wittman Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act of 2009
• H.R. 2121 10-Sep-09 Rep. Ron Paul To authorize the Administrator of General Services to convey a parcel of real property in Galveston, Texas, to the Galveston Historical Foundation.
• H.R. 3193 10-Sep-09 Rep. Thomas J. Rooney To designate the United States courthouse under construction at 101 South United States Route 1 in Fort Pierce, Florida, as the "Alto Lee Adams, Sr., United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 2053 10-Sep-09 Rep. Silvestre Reyes To designate the United States courthouse located at 525 Magoffin Avenue in El Paso, Texas, as the "Albert Armendariz, Sr., United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 2498 10-Sep-09 Rep. James Oberstar To designate the Federal building located at 844 North Rush Street in Chicago, Illinois, as the "William O. Lipinski Federal Building".
• H.R. 2093 07-Aug-09 Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act relating to beach monitoring, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1035 07-Aug-09 Rep. Grijalva To amend the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental and Native American Public Policy Act of 1992 to honor the legacy of Stewart L. Udall, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 2913 07-Aug-09 Rep. Ros-Lehtinen To designate the United States courthouse located at 301 Simonton Street in Key West, Florida, as the "Sidney M. Aronovitz United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 509 29-Jul-09 Rep. Henry Brown E., Jr. Marine Turtle Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2009.
• H.R. 2188 20-Jul-09 Rep. Frank Kratovil, Jr. To authorize the Secretary of the Interior, through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, to conduct a Joint Venture Program to protect, restore, enhance, and manage migratory bird populations, their habitats, and the ecosystems they rely on, through voluntary actions on public and private lands, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1687 15-Jun-09 Rep. John A. Boccieri To designate the federally occupied building located at McKinley Avenue and Third Street, SW., Canton, Ohio, as the "Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 1580 23-Apr-09 Rep. Bart Gordon To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants for electronic waste reduction research, development, and demonstration projects, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1145 23-Apr-09 Rep.Bart Gordon National Water Research and Development Initiative Act of 2009
• H.R. 388 22-Apr-09 Rep. Tammy Baldwin To assist in the conservation of cranes by supporting and providing, through projects of persons and organizations with expertise in crane conservation, financial resources for the conservation programs of countries the activities of which directly or indirectly affect cranes and the ecosystems of cranes.
• H.R. 411 22-Apr-09 Rep. Jay Inslee To assist in the conservation of rare felids and rare canids by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation programs of nations within the range of rare felid and rare canid populations and projects of persons with demonstrated expertise in the conservation of rare felid and rare canid populations.
• H.R. 1262 24-Mar-09 Rep. Oberstar Water Quality Investment Act of 2009
• H.R. 80 12-Mar-09 Rep. Blumenauer Captive Primate Safety Act
• H.R. 842 11-Mar-09 Rep. Thompson To designate the United States Courthouse to be constructed in Jackson, Mississippi, as the "R. Jess Brown United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 887 11-Mar-09 Rep. Loebsack To designate the United States courthouse located at 131 East 4th Street in Davenport, Iowa, as the "James A. Leach United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 813 11-Mar-09 Rep. Butterfield To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 306 East Main Street in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, as the "J. Herbert W. Small Federal Building and United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 837 11-Mar-09 Rep. Rangel To designate the Federal building located at 799 United Nations Plaza in New York, New York, as the "Ronald H. Brown United States Mission to the United Nations Building".
• H.R. 869 11-Mar-09 Rep. Chandler To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 101 Barr Street in Lexington, Kentucky, as the "Scott Reed Federal Building and United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 631 12-Feb-09 Rep. Matheson Water Use Efficiency and Conservation Research Act.
Bill Date Referred Sponsor Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• S. 1733 30-Sep-09 John F. Kerry A bill to create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy.
• S. 1712 24-Sep-09 Harry Reid A bill to promote water efficiency, conservation, and adaptation, and for other purposes.
• S. 1701 23-Sep-09 Sherrod Brown A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to require corrosion mitigation and prevention plans for bridges receiving Federal funding, and for other purposes.
• S. 1702 23-Sep-09 Mark Udall A bill to amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to facilitate the establishment of additional or expanded public target ranges in certain states.
• S. 1666 14-Sep-09 Susan M. Collins A bill to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to satisfy certain conditions before issuing to producers of mid-level ethanol blends a waiver from certain requirements under the Clean Air Act, and for other purposes.
• S. 1660 10-Sep-09 Amy Klobuchar A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to reduce the emissions of formaldehyde from composite wood products, and for other purposes.
• S. 1662 10-Sep-09 Sherrod Brown A bill to amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to modify the period used to calculate certain unemployment rates, to encourage the development of business incubators, and for other purposes.
• S. 1622 06-Aug-09 John Barrasso A bill to limit the applicability of a certain judicial ruling to sources regulated under section 202 of the Clean Air Act.
• S. 1641 06-Aug-09 Debbie Stabenow A bill to modify and waive certain requirements under title 23, United States Code, to assist States with a high unemployment rate in carrying out Federal-aid highway construction projects, and for other purposes.
• S. 1566 03-Aug-09 Mark Begich A bill to create the American Arctic Adaptation Grant Program to prevent or mitigate effects of Arctic climate change and for other purposes.
• S. 1536 29-Jul-09 Charles E. Schumer A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to reduce the amount of Federal highway funding available to States that do not enact a law prohibiting an individual from writing, sending, or reading text messages while operating a motor vehicle.
• S. 1534 29-Jul-09 Robert C. Byrd A bill to complete construction of the 13-States Appalachian development highway system, and for other purposes.
• S. 1535 29-Jul-09 Dianne Feinstein Protect America's Wildlife Act of 2009 .
• S. 1519 27-Jul-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to provide for the eradication and control of nutria in Maryland, Louisiana, and other coastal States.
• S. 1498 22-Jul-09 Barbara Boxer An original bill to provide an extension of highway programs authorized under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.
• S. 1471 20-Jul-09 David Vitter A bill to direct the Secretary of the Army to carry out certain water control projects at Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and for other purposes.
• S. 1428 09-Jul-09 Sheldon Whitehouse A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to phase out the use of mercury in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda, and for other purposes.
• S. 1421 09-Jul-09 Carl Levin Asian Carp Prevention and Control Act
• S. 1397 06-Jul-09 Amy Klobuchar A bill to authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants for electronic device recycling research, development, and demonstration projects, and for other purposes. (Environmental Protection)
• S. 1318 22-Jun-09 Judd Gregg A bill to prohibit the use of stimulus funds for signage indicating that a project is being carried out using those funds.
• S. 1311 19-Jun-09 Roger Wicker A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to expand and strengthen cooperative efforts to monitor, restore, and protect the resource productivity, water quality, and marine ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico.
• S. 1266 15-Jun-09 Amy Klobuchar A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Transportation to require that broadband conduit be installed as part of certain highway construction projects, and for other purposes.
• S. 1215 09-Jun-09 Robert P., Jr. Casey Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act
• S. 1214 09-Jun-09 Joseph I. Lieberman A bill to conserve fish and aquatic communities in the United States through partnerships that foster fish habitat conservation, to improve the quality of life for the people of the United States, and for other purposes.
• S. 1156 21-May-09 Tom Harkin A bill to amend the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users to reauthorize and improve the safe routes to school program.
• S. 1115 21-May-09 Kay Bailey Hutchison A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to prohibit the imposition of new tolls on the Federal-aid system, and for other purposes.
• S. 1148 21-May-09 Chuck Grassley A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to modify a provision relating to the renewable fuel program.
• S. 1098 20-May-09 Ron Wyden A bill to establish EnergySmart transport corridors to promote the planning and development of measures that will increase the energy efficiency of the Interstate System and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and other environmental pollutants, and for other purposes.
• S. 1095 20-May-09 Ron Wyden A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to convert the renewable fuel standard into a low-carbon fuel standard, and for other purposes.
• S. 1059 18-May-09 Mike Crapo A bill to permit commercial vehicles at weights up to 129,000 pounds to use certain highways of the Interstate System in the State of Idaho which would provide significant savings in the transportation of goods throughout the Unites States, and for other purposes.
• S. 1035 13-May-09 Kirsten Gillibrand A bill to enhance the ability of drinking water utilities in the United States to develop and implement climate change adaptation programs and policies, and for other purposes.
• S. 1005 07-May-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act to improve water and wastewater infrastructure in the United States.
• S. 971 05-May-09 Charles E. Schumer A bill to implement a pilot program to establish truck parking facilities.
• S. 933 30-Apr-09 Carl Levin A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002 to reauthorize programs to address remediation of contaminated sediment.
• S. 937 30-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to ensure that sewage treatment plants monitor for and report discharges of raw sewage, and for other purposes.
• S. 936 30-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize appropriations for sewer overflow control grants.
• S. 943 30-Apr-09 John Thune A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to permit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the lifecycle greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements for renewable fuel production, and for other purposes.
• S. 930 29-Apr-09 Patty Murray A bill to promote secure ferry transportation and for other purposes.
• S. 903 28-Apr-09 Kay Bailey Hutchison A bill to permit a State to elect to receive the State's contributions to the Highway Trust Fund in lieu of its Federal-aid Highway program apportionment for the next fiscal year, and for other purposes.
• S. 878 23-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to modify provisions relating to beach monitoring, and for other purposes.
• S. 884 23-Apr-09 Jeff Bingaman A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to remove privatized highway miles as a factor in apportioning highway funding.
• S. 856 22-Apr-09 Susan M. Collins A bill to establish a commercial truck highway safety demonstration program in the State of Maine, and for other purposes.
• S. 849 22-Apr-09 Thomas R. Carper A bill to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study on black carbon emissions.
• S. 854 22-Apr-09 George V. Voinovich A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to update a program to provide assistance for the planning, design, and construction of treatment works to intercept, transport, control, or treat municipal combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows, and to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to update certain guidance used to develop and determine the financial capability of communities to implement clean water infrastructure programs.
• S. 805 22-Apr-09 Bill Nelson A bill to provide for a comprehensive study by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to assess the water management, needs, and conservation of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System.
• S. 785 02-Apr-09 Lisa Murkowski Southeast Alaska Timber Industry Retooling and Restructuring Act .
• S. 791 02-Apr-09 Max Baucus Surface Transportation Safety Act of 2009
• S. 787 02-Apr-09 Russell D. Feingold Clean Water Restoration Act
• S. 779 01-Apr-09 Frank R. Lautenberg A bill to amend titles 23 and 49, United States Code, to modify provisions relating to the length and weight limitations for vehicles operating on Federal-aid highways, and for other purposes.
• S. 759 01-Apr-09 Jeff Bingaman A bill to amend the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century to reauthorize a provision relating to additional contract authority for States with Indian reservations.
• S. 724 26-Mar-09 John Barrasso A bill to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to temporarily prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from considering global climate change as a natural or manmade factor in determining whether a species is a threatened or endangered species, and for other purposes.
• S. 732 26-Mar-09 Daniel K. Akaka Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2009
• S. 690 25-Mar-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to amend the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act to reauthorize the Act.
• S. 696 25-Mar-09 Sam Brownback A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to include a definition of fill material.
• S. 675 24-Mar-09 Carl Levin A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prohibit the sale of dishwashing detergent in the United States if the detergent contains a high level of phosphorus, and for other purposes.
• S. 655 19-Mar-09 Tim Johnson A bill to amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to ensure adequate funding for conservation and restoration of wildlife, and for other purposes.
• S. 636 18-Mar-09 John Thune A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to confirm the definition of renewable biomass to the definition given the term in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.
• S. 584 12-Mar-09 Tom Harkin A bill to ensure that all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, children, older individuals, and individuals with disabilities, are able to travel safely and conveniently on and across federally funded streets and highways.
• S. 591 12-Mar-09 Harry Reid A bill to establish a National Commission on High-Level Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel, and for other purposes.
• S. 575 11-Mar-09 Thomas R. Carper A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to develop plans and targets for States and metropolitan planning organizations to develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, and for other purposes.
• S. 536 05-Mar-09 Ron Wyden A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to modify the definition of the term "renewable biomass".
• s. 529 05-Mar-09 Joseph I. Lieberman A bill to assist in the conservation of rare fields and rare canids by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation programs of countries within the range of rare felid and rare canid populations and projects of persons with demonstrated expertise in the conservation of rare felid and rare canid populations.
• S. 527 05-Mar-09 John Thune A bill to amend the Clean Air act to prohibit the issuance of permits under title V of that Act for certain emissions from agricultural production.
• S. Res. 64 04-Mar-09 Barbara Boxer A resolution recognizing the need for the Environmental Protection Agency to end decades of delay and utilize existing authority under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to comprehensively regulate coal combustion waste and the need for the Tennessee Valley Authority to be a national leader in technological innovation, low-cost power, and environmental stewardship.
• S. 489 26-Feb-09 David Vitter A bill to amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to authorize hunting under certain circumstances.
• S. 479 25-Feb-09 Benjamin L. Cardin A bill to amend the Chesapeake Bay Initiative Act of 1998 to provide for the continuing authorization of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network.
• S. 480 25-Feb-09 Sherrod Brown A bill to establish the Office of Regional Economic Adjustment in the Department of Commerce, to assist regions affected by sudden and severe economic dislocation by coordinating Federal, State, and local resources for economic adjustment and by providing technical assistance, and for other purposes.
• S. 462 24-Feb-09 Barbara Boxer A bill to amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit the importation, exportation, transportation, and sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, of any live animal of any prohibited wildlife species, and for other purposes.
• S. 432 12-Feb-09 Jeff Bingaman A bill to amend the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental and Native American Public Policy Act of 1992 to honor the legacy of Stewart L. Udall, and for other purposes.
• S. Res. 42 12-Feb-09 Barbara Boxer An original resolution authorizing expenditures by the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
• S. 430 12-Feb-09 James M. Inhofe A bill to amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to reauthorize that Act, and for other purposes.
• S. 430 12-Feb-09 James M. Inhofe A bill to amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to reauthorize that Act, and for other purposes.
• S. 398 09-Feb-09 Mike Crapo A bill to permit commercial vehicles at weights up to 129, 000 pounds to use certain highways of the Interstate System in the State of Idaho which would provide significant savings in the transportation of goods throughout the United States, and for other purposes.
• S. 387 05-Feb-09 Richard Durbin A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 211 South Court Street, Rockford, Illinois, as the "Stanley J. Roszkowski United States Courthouse".
• S. 377 04-Feb-09 Chuck Grassley A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 131 East 4th Street in Davenport, Iowa, as the "James A. Leach United States Courthouse".
• S. 373 03-Feb-09 Bill Nelson A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal.
• S. 308 22-Jan-09 Max Baucus A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to improve economic opportunity and development in rural States through highway investment, and for other purposes.
• S. 309 22-Jan-09 Max Baucus A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to improve highway transportation in the United States, including rural and metropolitan areas.
• S. 232 14-Jan-09 Lamar Alexander A bill to prohibit the importation of certain low-level radioactive waste into the United States.
• S. 231 14-Jan-09 Joseph I. Lieberman A bill to designate a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.
• S. 237 14-Jan-09 Carl Levin A bill to establish a collaborative program to protect the Great Lakes, and for other purposes.
• S. 197 09-Jan-09 Russell D. Feingold A bill to assist in the conservation of cranes by supporting and providing, through projects of persons and organizations with expertise in crane conservation, financial resources for the conservation programs of countries the activities of which directly or indirectly affect cranes and the ecosystem of cranes.
• S. 198 09-Jan-09 Bernard Sanders A bill to direct the Secretary of Transportation to waive non-Federal share requirements for certain transportation programs and activities through September 30, 2009.
House Bills Sent to Senate Committee
House Bills, 111th Congress
Bill Referred Sponsor Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• H.R. 1053 01-Oct-09 Rep. Robert J. Wittman Chesapeake Bay Accountability and Recovery Act of 2009
• H.R. 2121 10-Sep-09 Rep. Ron Paul To authorize the Administrator of General Services to convey a parcel of real property in Galveston, Texas, to the Galveston Historical Foundation.
• H.R. 3193 10-Sep-09 Rep. Thomas J. Rooney To designate the United States courthouse under construction at 101 South United States Route 1 in Fort Pierce, Florida, as the "Alto Lee Adams, Sr., United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 2053 10-Sep-09 Rep. Silvestre Reyes To designate the United States courthouse located at 525 Magoffin Avenue in El Paso, Texas, as the "Albert Armendariz, Sr., United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 2498 10-Sep-09 Rep. James Oberstar To designate the Federal building located at 844 North Rush Street in Chicago, Illinois, as the "William O. Lipinski Federal Building".
• H.R. 2093 07-Aug-09 Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act relating to beach monitoring, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1035 07-Aug-09 Rep. Grijalva To amend the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental and Native American Public Policy Act of 1992 to honor the legacy of Stewart L. Udall, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 2913 07-Aug-09 Rep. Ros-Lehtinen To designate the United States courthouse located at 301 Simonton Street in Key West, Florida, as the "Sidney M. Aronovitz United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 509 29-Jul-09 Rep. Henry Brown E., Jr. Marine Turtle Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2009.
• H.R. 2188 20-Jul-09 Rep. Frank Kratovil, Jr. To authorize the Secretary of the Interior, through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, to conduct a Joint Venture Program to protect, restore, enhance, and manage migratory bird populations, their habitats, and the ecosystems they rely on, through voluntary actions on public and private lands, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1687 15-Jun-09 Rep. John A. Boccieri To designate the federally occupied building located at McKinley Avenue and Third Street, SW., Canton, Ohio, as the "Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 1580 23-Apr-09 Rep. Bart Gordon To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants for electronic waste reduction research, development, and demonstration projects, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1145 23-Apr-09 Rep.Bart Gordon National Water Research and Development Initiative Act of 2009
• H.R. 388 22-Apr-09 Rep. Tammy Baldwin To assist in the conservation of cranes by supporting and providing, through projects of persons and organizations with expertise in crane conservation, financial resources for the conservation programs of countries the activities of which directly or indirectly affect cranes and the ecosystems of cranes.
• H.R. 411 22-Apr-09 Rep. Jay Inslee To assist in the conservation of rare felids and rare canids by supporting and providing financial resources for the conservation programs of nations within the range of rare felid and rare canid populations and projects of persons with demonstrated expertise in the conservation of rare felid and rare canid populations.
• H.R. 1262 24-Mar-09 Rep. Oberstar Water Quality Investment Act of 2009
• H.R. 80 12-Mar-09 Rep. Blumenauer Captive Primate Safety Act
• H.R. 842 11-Mar-09 Rep. Thompson To designate the United States Courthouse to be constructed in Jackson, Mississippi, as the "R. Jess Brown United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 887 11-Mar-09 Rep. Loebsack To designate the United States courthouse located at 131 East 4th Street in Davenport, Iowa, as the "James A. Leach United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 813 11-Mar-09 Rep. Butterfield To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 306 East Main Street in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, as the "J. Herbert W. Small Federal Building and United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 837 11-Mar-09 Rep. Rangel To designate the Federal building located at 799 United Nations Plaza in New York, New York, as the "Ronald H. Brown United States Mission to the United Nations Building".
• H.R. 869 11-Mar-09 Rep. Chandler To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 101 Barr Street in Lexington, Kentucky, as the "Scott Reed Federal Building and United States Courthouse".
• H.R. 631 12-Feb-09 Rep. Matheson Water Use Efficiency and Conservation Research Act.
The Eco-Upside of Stalled Traffic
Wall Street Journal
October 9, 2009
By DAVID OWEN
"By requiring car drivers to pay a fee to drive in a city at peak hours, congestion pricing reduces traffic and raises money that can be used to support public transit—both worthy goals.
Yet congestion pricing has dubious environmental value. Traffic jams, if they're managed well, can actually be good for the environment. They maintain a level of frustration that turns drivers into subway riders or pedestrians.
A New York traffic snarl
Jay H. Walder, the man appointed this week as chairman and chief executive officer of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, helped design London's congestion pricing scheme. New York certainly has plenty of congestion. At the busiest times of the day, cars on side streets in midtown move so slowly that they appear almost to be parked, and taxi passengers often watch in dismay as pedestrians outpace them and disappear into the distance. Mr. Walder has said he isn't planning to bring up congestion pricing again for New York, but the fact that he was chosen for the job suggests that it's at least a possibility.
In 1949, only 3% of American families owned more than one car; in 2001, for the first time, the number of cars in the United States exceeded the number of licensed drivers. The resulting traffic jams look like an ecological disaster. And they are one, but not for the reasons that people usually assume.
Congestion isn't an environmental problem; it's a driving problem. If reducing it merely makes life easier for those who drive, then the improved traffic flow can actually increase the environmental damage done by cars, by raising overall traffic volume, encouraging sprawl and long car commutes. A popular effort to curb rush-hour congestion, freeway entrance ramp meters, is commonly seen as good for the environment. But they significantly decrease peak-period travel times—by 10% in Atlanta and 22% in Houston, according to studies in those cities—and lead to increases in overall vehicle volume. In Minnesota, ramp metering increased overall traffic volume by 9% and peak volume by 14%. The increase in traffic volume was accompanied by a corresponding increase in fuel consumption of 5.5 million gallons.
Traffic jams can actually be environmentally beneficial if they turn subways, buses, car pools, bicycles and walking into more-attractive options. Residents of the New York metropolitan area are extraordinarily committed transit users—they account for almost a third of all the public-transit passenger miles traveled in the United States. Making a cab ride seem more efficient than the subway, by reducing the congestion on the streets, would be a loss for the environment.
London's Congestion Charge zone in February, 2007
The traditional solution to traffic congestion is to create additional road capacity. But projects like those almost always end up making the original problem worse because they generate what transportation planners call "induced traffic": every mile of new, open roadway encourages existing users to make more car trips, lures drivers away from other routes and tempts transit riders to return to their automobiles, with the eventual result that the new roads become at least as clogged as the old roads.
Congestion pricing is basic economics. The idea is that if you have a sporadically scarce commodity, such as space in automobile lanes, you can eliminate distribution bottlenecks by adjusting prices in counterpoint to variations in demand. Hotels do this by raising room rates when travel is popular and lowering them when travel is not. That helps to smooth fluctuations in reservation rates, enabling the hotels to make better use of their existing rooms and to increase total revenues without building new capacity, much of which would end up being empty except during periods of peak travel.
The concept works the same way with cars. Rather than attempting to eliminate congestion by laying new asphalt, planners seek to make existing roads more efficient by imposing fees that are high enough to discourage significant numbers of drivers from traveling in the most popular places at the most popular times. This often does open up clogged streets—and London is the example that proponents usually cite—but the overall result is not necessarily a gain for the environment or for public transit. If the result of congestion pricing is simply to spread traffic out, thereby maintaining or increasing total traffic volume while also making driving more pleasant for those who continue to do it, then its putative environmental benefits are fictitious.
Jay Walder, the former managing director for finance and development of London's public transit system, who this week became chief of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Time lost to traffic delays has an obvious cost—all those stalled commuters could be working at their desks or interacting with their children instead of fuming at other drivers—but perceptions of productivity are among the factors that commuters weigh when they consider where to live and how to travel to work. Reducing congestion increases the productivity of solo driving, and that increases the incentive to drive—a bad result for the environment. In 1999, the Australian researchers Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy concluded that 'there is no guarantee that congestion pricing will simultaneously improve congestion and sustainability," and mentioned several ways in which congestion pricing can defy the expectations of its supporters, among them by causing motorists to "drive exactly as they always have if the congestion charge is covered by their firms (e.g., a majority of London's peak-hour commuters have company cars and perks).'
Advocates of congestion-fighting strategies usually argue that traffic jams waste gasoline. That's true, but the energy waste and carbon output attributable to idling cars is smaller than that attributable to the overall transportation network. There's nothing green about fighting congestion if, by distributing traffic more efficiently, it results in an overall increase in traffic volume and extra miles driven by vehicles avoiding the fee areas.
Which is not to say that making drivers pay is a bad idea. It is absurd, in New York, that the East River bridges still don't charge tolls and that curbside parking in much of the city is free.
A truly effective traffic program for any dense city would impose high fees for all automobile access and public parking while also gradually eliminating automobile lanes (thereby reducing total car traffic volume without eliminating the environmentally beneficial burden of driver frustration and inefficiency) and increasing the capacity and efficiency of public transit."
October 9, 2009
By DAVID OWEN
"By requiring car drivers to pay a fee to drive in a city at peak hours, congestion pricing reduces traffic and raises money that can be used to support public transit—both worthy goals.
Yet congestion pricing has dubious environmental value. Traffic jams, if they're managed well, can actually be good for the environment. They maintain a level of frustration that turns drivers into subway riders or pedestrians.
A New York traffic snarl
Jay H. Walder, the man appointed this week as chairman and chief executive officer of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, helped design London's congestion pricing scheme. New York certainly has plenty of congestion. At the busiest times of the day, cars on side streets in midtown move so slowly that they appear almost to be parked, and taxi passengers often watch in dismay as pedestrians outpace them and disappear into the distance. Mr. Walder has said he isn't planning to bring up congestion pricing again for New York, but the fact that he was chosen for the job suggests that it's at least a possibility.
In 1949, only 3% of American families owned more than one car; in 2001, for the first time, the number of cars in the United States exceeded the number of licensed drivers. The resulting traffic jams look like an ecological disaster. And they are one, but not for the reasons that people usually assume.
Congestion isn't an environmental problem; it's a driving problem. If reducing it merely makes life easier for those who drive, then the improved traffic flow can actually increase the environmental damage done by cars, by raising overall traffic volume, encouraging sprawl and long car commutes. A popular effort to curb rush-hour congestion, freeway entrance ramp meters, is commonly seen as good for the environment. But they significantly decrease peak-period travel times—by 10% in Atlanta and 22% in Houston, according to studies in those cities—and lead to increases in overall vehicle volume. In Minnesota, ramp metering increased overall traffic volume by 9% and peak volume by 14%. The increase in traffic volume was accompanied by a corresponding increase in fuel consumption of 5.5 million gallons.
Traffic jams can actually be environmentally beneficial if they turn subways, buses, car pools, bicycles and walking into more-attractive options. Residents of the New York metropolitan area are extraordinarily committed transit users—they account for almost a third of all the public-transit passenger miles traveled in the United States. Making a cab ride seem more efficient than the subway, by reducing the congestion on the streets, would be a loss for the environment.
London's Congestion Charge zone in February, 2007
The traditional solution to traffic congestion is to create additional road capacity. But projects like those almost always end up making the original problem worse because they generate what transportation planners call "induced traffic": every mile of new, open roadway encourages existing users to make more car trips, lures drivers away from other routes and tempts transit riders to return to their automobiles, with the eventual result that the new roads become at least as clogged as the old roads.
Congestion pricing is basic economics. The idea is that if you have a sporadically scarce commodity, such as space in automobile lanes, you can eliminate distribution bottlenecks by adjusting prices in counterpoint to variations in demand. Hotels do this by raising room rates when travel is popular and lowering them when travel is not. That helps to smooth fluctuations in reservation rates, enabling the hotels to make better use of their existing rooms and to increase total revenues without building new capacity, much of which would end up being empty except during periods of peak travel.
The concept works the same way with cars. Rather than attempting to eliminate congestion by laying new asphalt, planners seek to make existing roads more efficient by imposing fees that are high enough to discourage significant numbers of drivers from traveling in the most popular places at the most popular times. This often does open up clogged streets—and London is the example that proponents usually cite—but the overall result is not necessarily a gain for the environment or for public transit. If the result of congestion pricing is simply to spread traffic out, thereby maintaining or increasing total traffic volume while also making driving more pleasant for those who continue to do it, then its putative environmental benefits are fictitious.
Jay Walder, the former managing director for finance and development of London's public transit system, who this week became chief of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Time lost to traffic delays has an obvious cost—all those stalled commuters could be working at their desks or interacting with their children instead of fuming at other drivers—but perceptions of productivity are among the factors that commuters weigh when they consider where to live and how to travel to work. Reducing congestion increases the productivity of solo driving, and that increases the incentive to drive—a bad result for the environment. In 1999, the Australian researchers Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy concluded that 'there is no guarantee that congestion pricing will simultaneously improve congestion and sustainability," and mentioned several ways in which congestion pricing can defy the expectations of its supporters, among them by causing motorists to "drive exactly as they always have if the congestion charge is covered by their firms (e.g., a majority of London's peak-hour commuters have company cars and perks).'
Advocates of congestion-fighting strategies usually argue that traffic jams waste gasoline. That's true, but the energy waste and carbon output attributable to idling cars is smaller than that attributable to the overall transportation network. There's nothing green about fighting congestion if, by distributing traffic more efficiently, it results in an overall increase in traffic volume and extra miles driven by vehicles avoiding the fee areas.
Which is not to say that making drivers pay is a bad idea. It is absurd, in New York, that the East River bridges still don't charge tolls and that curbside parking in much of the city is free.
A truly effective traffic program for any dense city would impose high fees for all automobile access and public parking while also gradually eliminating automobile lanes (thereby reducing total car traffic volume without eliminating the environmentally beneficial burden of driver frustration and inefficiency) and increasing the capacity and efficiency of public transit."
Friday, September 11, 2009
Highway Bill Passage Unlikely for This Fall
Wall Street Journal
SEPTEMBER 10, 2009, 12:04 P.M. ET
Highway-Bill Passage This Fall Is Unlikely
By JOSH MITCHELL
WASHINGTON -- "The U.S. House Transportation Committee chairman said Thursday that a six-year, $450 billion highway bill is unlikely to clear Congress this fall, and that an extension of current transportation funding formulas is likely.
Rep. James Oberstar's statement, while not a surprise, deals a setback to states and construction firms that argue a boost in federal spending on highways and mass transit is urgently needed to stem rising job losses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other associations tied to infrastructure investment are preparing to step up lobbying next week to avoid a delay in overhauling federal transportation policy.
A spokesman for Mr. Oberstar (D., Minn.), told Dow Jones Newswires that he still hoped to have a vote on his bill later this month but that passage by the full Congress is unrealistic, given Washington's focus on health-care reform and other issues.
'Under the most realistic scenarios, that's going to be very, very difficult given the position the Senate is holding and the White House is holding,' Jim Berard, a spokesman for Mr. Oberstar, said of the prospect of a new bill being passed this fall.
The current law expires Sept. 30.
The debate will now turn to how long to extend current funding levels.
President Barack Obama seeks an 18-month extension, pushing the debate off until after the 2010 elections.
Mr. Oberstar and other Democrats have indicated they would seek a shorter delay, in hopes of getting a new law in place as early as next spring.
Janet Kavinoky, the Chamber of Commerce's director of transportation and infrastructure, said the uncertainty caused by a lengthy delay will prompt businesses to hold off on major purchases and contracts, further crimping the economy.
'We need the space in the national agenda to deal with this issue,' Ms. Kavinoky said. 'I think we'll be able to see that more clearly once [the healthcare debate] is finished."
SEPTEMBER 10, 2009, 12:04 P.M. ET
Highway-Bill Passage This Fall Is Unlikely
By JOSH MITCHELL
WASHINGTON -- "The U.S. House Transportation Committee chairman said Thursday that a six-year, $450 billion highway bill is unlikely to clear Congress this fall, and that an extension of current transportation funding formulas is likely.
Rep. James Oberstar's statement, while not a surprise, deals a setback to states and construction firms that argue a boost in federal spending on highways and mass transit is urgently needed to stem rising job losses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other associations tied to infrastructure investment are preparing to step up lobbying next week to avoid a delay in overhauling federal transportation policy.
A spokesman for Mr. Oberstar (D., Minn.), told Dow Jones Newswires that he still hoped to have a vote on his bill later this month but that passage by the full Congress is unrealistic, given Washington's focus on health-care reform and other issues.
'Under the most realistic scenarios, that's going to be very, very difficult given the position the Senate is holding and the White House is holding,' Jim Berard, a spokesman for Mr. Oberstar, said of the prospect of a new bill being passed this fall.
The current law expires Sept. 30.
The debate will now turn to how long to extend current funding levels.
President Barack Obama seeks an 18-month extension, pushing the debate off until after the 2010 elections.
Mr. Oberstar and other Democrats have indicated they would seek a shorter delay, in hopes of getting a new law in place as early as next spring.
Janet Kavinoky, the Chamber of Commerce's director of transportation and infrastructure, said the uncertainty caused by a lengthy delay will prompt businesses to hold off on major purchases and contracts, further crimping the economy.
'We need the space in the national agenda to deal with this issue,' Ms. Kavinoky said. 'I think we'll be able to see that more clearly once [the healthcare debate] is finished."
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