By
Nathan Hurst
| July 29, 2013, 2:20 p.m.
Postponing action on a rail authorization until Congress takes up broader surface transportation legislation next year may provide Amtrak supporters with a tantalizing opportunity to solve their long-term funding problem.
By
Nathan Hurst
| July 29, 2013, 2:16 p.m.
With time running out before the current authorization of federal railroad programs expires at the end of September, it looks increasingly likely that lawmakers will postpone new rail legislation until next year and roll it into a bigger surface transportation bill.
By
Steven T. Dennis
| July 24, 2013, 3:59 p.m.
President Barack Obama’s latest pivot-to-the-economy speech at Knox College in Illinois struck familiar themes pointing to a popular-if-thwarted middle-class agenda while challenging Republicans not to shut down the government or spark another default crisis.
By
Nathan Hurst
| July 15, 2013, 2:46 p.m.
In addition to focusing attention on mechanical concerns about the freight trains that haul crude oil to refineries, the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, train crash is reviving debate about allowing rural cargo railroads to operate trains with just one professional on board.
By
Nathan Hurst
| July 15, 2013, 2:41 p.m.
The freight train derailment and explosion that flattened a tiny Quebec town earlier this month has renewed scrutiny of a widely used type of oil tanker cars that has been a concern by safety watchdogs for years.
Patrick Jones
| July 8, 2013, 7 p.m.
The recent Skagit River Bridge collapse shone a national spotlight on America’s infrastructure funding crisis, precisely at a time when Washington welcomes a new Transportation Secretary and Congress begins serious discussions around how to fund our nation’s transportation infrastructure. With the 2014 surface transportation reauthorization on the horizon, Congress has a serious choice to make: Do we stick with the same funding strategy that now provides dwindling revenues or do we explore alternative funding options like tolling?
By
Nathan Hurst
| June 24, 2013, 3 p.m.
There’s no sign of any legislative effort in Congress after a deadly California limousine crash this spring, but state lawmakers in Sacramento are weighing bills aimed at making the vehicles safer.
By
Nathan Hurst
| June 24, 2013, 2:57 p.m.
Two high-profile limousine accidents in Northern California this spring are raising questions about oversight of the industry that builds the vehicles — though highway safety advocates see little prospect of tougher scrutiny by lawmakers anytime soon.
Grace Boatright
| June 18, 2013, 5 a.m.
This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will explore the effects of America’s energy exports. From shale gas to Western coal, demand for American energy resources is creating a new trade wind for America. Previous hearings on this subject have overlooked another major U.S. trade industry that stands to benefit from more exports: agriculture. One doesn’t naturally put together that agricultural exports and energy resources like coal could go hand-in-hand. But in the upper Northwest, a region that stands to gain substantially from energy exports, nothing could be further from the truth.
By
Nathan Hurst
| June 10, 2013, 2:40 p.m.
Driverless cars remain a rare novelty, but it might surprise motorists to discover that much of the technology that will make them work is already available in the new cars they’re buying today.
By
Nathan Hurst
| June 10, 2013, 2:31 p.m.
No longer confined to the realm of science fiction, driverless vehicles are beginning to show up on American highways, with California, Nevada and Florida already legalizing their use.
By
Nathan Hurst
| June 6, 2013, 5 a.m.
The House’s 3-year-old ban on earmarks may be put to the test in the coming weeks, as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee writes its authorization of flood control, navigation and environmental restoration programs.
Grant Seiffert
| May 23, 2013, 5 a.m.
Recently, the Senate Commerce Committee served as the forum for a discussion we will be hearing much more about — the convergence of the tech and transportation industries in “intelligent vehicles.”
By
Nathan Hurst
| May 22, 2013, 6:20 p.m.
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx sidestepped persistent questioning Wednesday about how to fill revenue shortfalls in the Highway Trust Fund, telling senators weighing his confirmation as Transportation secretary that he would “bring together a wide variety of stakeholders”
Don Wolfensberger
| May 21, 2013, 1:31 p.m.
Bashing Congress has been a popular sport since the beginning of the republic. Ohio Republican Rep. Nicholas Longworth described this national pastime in his acceptance speech as speaker in 1925: “I have been a member of the House of Representatives ... 20 years. During the whole of that time we have been attacked, denounced, despised, hunted, harried, blamed, looked down upon, excoriated, and flayed. I refuse to take it personally.”
By
Nathan Hurst
| May 20, 2013, 2:59 p.m.
The decline in driving by Americans may already be hastening the demise of the Highway Trust Fund.
By
Nathan Hurst
| May 20, 2013, 2:44 p.m.
A new study suggests the driving habits of Americans may be changing faster than lawmakers can figure out how to tax them.
By
Nathan Hurst, Lauren Gardner
| May 10, 2013, 6:31 p.m.
Louisiana Democrat Mary L. Landrieu has revamped her amendment to freeze flood insurance rates for five years, removing the biggest obstacle to final Senate action this week on legislation to authorize federal projects for flood control, navigation and environmental restoration.
Matt Keelen and Bud DeFlaviis
| May 8, 2013, 12:52 p.m.
In the past decade, much has been said about the use of drone technology, particularly its use in combat. More recently, the filibuster by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., questioned privacy and other concerns as this technology is deployed domestically.
By
Nathan Hurst
| May 6, 2013, 2:49 p.m.
While President Barack Obama complained that averting Federal Aviation Administration furloughs by transferring airport capital improvement funds amounted to “using our seedcorn,” his own fiscal 2014 budget would cut the Airport Improvement Program by 17 percent.
