Eno Transportation Weekly

July 11, 2019 – Stephen Dickson, nominee for the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), had his nomination advanced from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Wednesday, July 10. The vote was 14-12 on party lines in favor of advancing the nomination to the full Senate. The committee also approved Michelle Schultz for an open seat on the Surface Transportation Board by voice vote.

June 27, 2019 – At the June 20 hearing of the House Railroads Subcommittee on “The State of the Rail Workforce,” witnesses and Democratic members expressed that over the past decade, railroading has changed dramatically in this country.

June 13, 2019 – This week, the Federal Railroad Administration announced that it had selected projects to receive $326 million in railroad grants from the fiscal year 2018 appropriation for the CRISI grant program (Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements),

May 17, 2019 – Yesterday, the Federal Railroad Administration formally notified the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) that FRA is canceling an $929 million grant agreement signed by the Obama Administration eight years ago and will not be giving CHSRA the money.

May 9, 2019 – Eno staff will participate in several events during Infrastructure Week, May 13-20, 2019. Register for our webinars and check out these Infrastructure Week events!

May 2, 2019 – The new chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) yesterday released a project status update that fleshes out the plan outlined by new Governor Gavin Newsom to focus on completing and implementing high-speed rail service on a 171-mile corridor from Merced in the north to Bakersfield in the south, at a cost of $20.4 billion.

Large, regional infrastructure projects are key to unlocking future economic growth. One example is the AIRnet-21 proposal that would rebuild the Northeast Corridor rail line.

March 22, 2019 – Just a day after the White House released their budget proposal for 2020, which would significantly cut funding for rail and transit programs, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development held a hearing on March 12 to discuss the challenges and opportunities regarding passenger rail development.

March 20, 2019 – The President’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security includes proposals for a small cut in Transportation Security Administration operational funding, a large cut in Coast Guard procurement, and a two-thirds cut in Federal Emergency Management Agency transportation security grants.

March 21, 2019 – Amtrak sent its fiscal 2020 budget request to Congress yesterday and asked for $141 million less than Congress actually appropriated for fiscal year 2019. The 2020 request of $1.80 billion is the amount authorized by Congress in the FAST Act of 2015, but Congressional appropriations for Amtrak and other railroad programs in 2018 and 2019 have exceeded the authorized amounts significantly.

March 20, 2019 – What a difference a year makes. In 2019, the Trump Administration requested zero new funding for discretionary grant programs. In 2020, they are requesting $4 billion.

March 15, 2019 – As part of the Trump Administration’s fiscal 2020 budget rollout, the Federal Transit Administration this afternoon released its detailed annual report on its Capital Investment Grant program, including updates on the project status and ratings of every proposed subway, light rail, and bus rapid transit project in the United States.

March 14, 2019 – Today, a bipartisan group of Senators, including the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee with jurisdiction over mass transit issues, introduced a bill that would ban U.S. transit agencies from buying rail cars or buses made by any company that is “owned or controlled by, is a subsidiary of, or is otherwise related legally or financially to a corporation” located in the People’s Republic of China.

March 11, 2019 – President Trump has released a fiscal year 2020 budget request today that calls for $84.1 billion in gross budgetary resources for the U.S. Department of Transportation today, a $3.5 billion decrease from 2019.

March 8, 2019 – This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told an Association for Better New York breakfast meeting that he wants to attach legislation forcing the federal government to start funding a $13.6 billion project to build new passenger rail tunnels under the Hudson River to the next “must-pass” spending bill. But it’s hard to see Schumer getting what he wants without either violating Congress’s ban on earmarks, or else fundamentally restructuring the mass transit Capital Investment Grant program.

March 8, 2019 – On March 4, the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) issued a formal response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s February 19 notice that it intended to cancel the $929 million grant of fiscal year 2010 appropriations promised by the Obama Administration for the Golden State’s troubled high-speed rail project.

Tuesday, March 12 – House Transportation and Infrastructure – Subcommittee on Aviation – subcommittee hearing entitled “Looking Forward: Aviation 2050” (witness list here) – 10:00 a.m., HVC-210 The Capitol.

March 1, 2019 – A House hearing on infrastructure and climate change this week explored the need for federal funding of resilient infrastructure as well as finding the right blend of market-based incentives.

March 1, 2019 – On February 26, the House Homeland Security Committee held a joint hearing to look at ways to secure the U.S. surface transportation system from cyber attacks, including potential threats posted by Chinese manufacture of rail cars.

March 1, 2019 – Yesterday, the chairman and ranking Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), jointly introduced legislation that would provide temporary extensions of numerous targeted tax breaks that expired at the end of 2017 or 2018.