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.
February 14, 2019 – Yesterday, Sen.
January 25, 2019 – Both the spending and revenue sides of the federal-aid highway program are very carbon-centric. Is the present highway program compatible with a “Green New Deal”?
December 21, 2018 – At 5:15 p.m. today – the Friday before Christmas – the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that it has determined that California’s state laws requiring minimum meal and rest breaks for truck drivers are preempted by federal hours-of-service laws. The determination by FMCSA came in response to petitions filed by the American Trucking Associations and the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association.
December 21, 2018 – The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published a new rule to allow State Driver Licensing Agencies to issue a commercial learner’s permit for one year, up from the current 180 days.
October 25, 2018 – As cities look for solutions to reduce freight-caused congestion and boost turnover at commercial load/unload zones, one possible solution—common carrier locker systems—seems poised to emerge as a tested and proven favorite.
October 19, 2018 – The booming economy and corporate tax cuts caused a surge in the sales of heavy trucks and trailers in fiscal year 2018, causing gross receipts of the Highway Trust Fund to increase by 5.0 percent over fiscal year 2017.
October 17, 2018 – The books are closed on fiscal year 2018 and they reveal that net U.S. Department of Transportation spending (outlays) decreased by $946 million in 2018 versus 2017. But all is not as it seems.
October 5, 2018 – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the annual estimate of fatalities from highway accidents in the United States for calendar year 2017, showing that fatalities decreased slightly after two years of increases.
September 21, 2018 – Hopes that another four-bill package of appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2019, including the Transportation-HUD appropriations bill, could be signed into law before the elections are fading, despite more meetings of Appropriations Committee staffers to be held next week.
September 5, 2018 – In an effort to address occupational and skills gaps in the freight transportation industry, ports and private entities are teaming up with schools to help bring more young people into transportation and logistics careers.
September 6, 2018 – The leaders of the House and Senate transportation committees told reporters this week that they are working to “pre-conference” their disagreements on the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill (H.R. 4/S. 1405). The House passed its bill on April 27 but the Senate has been unable to bring its own version of the bill to the floor.
August 16, 2018 – Five years after labor disputes out West grinded operations at 29 ports to a halt, federal focus on freight transportation seems to be moving toward intermodal connectors and the infrastructure that moves freight out of the port and across the country.
Summary and status of all transportation-related amendments filed to the Senate version of the FY 2019 Transportation Appropriations Act during the week of July 23, 2018.
July 13, 2018 – The infrastructure legislation that House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) has quietly been working on for weeks could be unveiled by the end of this month.
June 14, 2018 Now that the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have approved their versions of the fiscal 2019 Transportation-Housing appropriations bill, we can start comparing the House and Senate bills and trying to figure out what a final compromise legislative product might look like.
June 13, 2018 – The economic and social benefits of widespread deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) will far outweigh the costs in labor displacement and lost wages, according to new research commissioned by Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE).
June 8, 2018 – Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee swiftly approved a draft bill funding the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for fiscal year 2019.
June 5, 2018 – Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation sent Congress a proposed list of 26 projects totaling $1.535 billion under the so-called INFRA grant program (called the FASTLANE grant program under the Obama Administration because its statutory acronym, NHSFP, is not easily pronounceable).
June 6, 2018 – The Senate Transportation-Housing Appropriations Subcommittee this morning approved, by voice vote, a draft bill appropriating a net $71.4 billion for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for fiscal year 2019. As is the usual practice, the subcommittee markup session was brief (just over 15 minutes), gave out few details, and featured a lot of positive statements and no amendments.