http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/07/17/senate-banking-committee-slow-to-take-up-transit-portion-of-transpo-bill/
By Tanya Snyder, July 17, 2015
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has
unanimously passed
the highway portion of a six-year transportation bill. The Commerce
Committee has done its work on the rail and safety portion. The Finance
Committee has the hardest job, the one that’s flummoxed Capitol Hill for
six years now, but it’s held a hearing on transportation funding and
Committee Chair Orrin Hatch says he’s
confident
they’ll get it done. But it’s the Banking Committee, with jurisdiction
over transit, that’s the least far along with its work to complete a
transportation bill.
Will the Banking Committee renew a yet-unused pilot grant program for TOD planning?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants the whole transportation
issue to go away quickly and not come back until after the 2016
elections. Rather than take up the five-month extension the House passed
earlier this week,
McConnell has set up a Tuesday vote on a measure that will clear the way for the Senate to consider the bill, finished or not.
Banking Committee members have told the bill drafters
their priorities for a bill, but no language has been released yet. If
timing gets tight (and who are we kidding; it’s already tight),
Committee Chair Richard Shelby could forgo committee consideration and
bring his section of the bill directly to the floor. With transit
defender Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio occupying the top Democrat seat on
the committee, one hopes he’ll be able to help shape the bill.
The transit portion of MAP-21 included a $10 million transit-oriented
development planning grant pilot program but has failed to award any
funds so far. A pilot doesn’t do much good if it’s never utilized, so
advocates hope the Banking Committee will extend the program to provide
an opportunity to evaluate it (and that U.S. DOT will disburse the
MAP-21 money already).
Another opportunity for TOD comes in the Commerce Committee bill,
which included a provision to better use the underutilized Railroad
Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program, authorized at $35
billion. The bill would allow local communities and real estate
developers to access the funds directly to finance transit-oriented
development, including commercial and residential development around
passenger rail stations.
Another noteworthy aspect of the Commerce Committee’s portion that we
failed to mention when it came out and all we could talk about was the
proposed elimination of TIGER:
It includes a rail authorization. Despite the fact that rail runs on
the surface, it’s historically been excluded from the surface
transportation bill. With the current rail authorization expired since
2013, the Commerce Committee has the opportunity to correct that
mistake, and they’re taking it. So far, it doesn’t look like the rail
authorizations alters current policy very much, but we’ll keep you
posted if we uncover a big change.
