OK, that headline is a slight exaggerations: Some people like the federal transportation bill proposed in the US House, which would eliminate guaranteed funding for transit, kill Safe Routes to School, end all federal funding for bike and pedestrian projects, and eliminate a number of bridge and highway safety standards. House Speaker John Boehner, for example, loves the bill. So do some, but not all, House Republicans (some conservatives say the bill costs too much), and, of course, the highway lobby.
But, yeah, pretty much no one else. Today, facing criticism from the US transportation secretary (who called it “the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen”), opposition from Congressional Democrats and Republicans, and outrage from newspaper editorial boards from coast to coast, Boehner withdrew the legislation.
Instead of submitting the bill as proposed, Boehner announced today that he would divide the bill into three separate pieces—an energy bill, a transportation bill, and a bill to pay for the new expenses through changes to the federal pension system—in the hopes of recombining the bill after each component passes. Republicans said they do not have the votes to pass the bill in the house as proposed, The Hill reported today.
The original bill would have massively expanded offshore drilling; eliminated a Reagan-era guarantee that 20 percent of highway trust fund revenues go to transit; eliminated all federal funding for biking and pedestrian projects; killed Safe Routes to School; and eliminated safety standards for highways and bridges. Additionally, Boehner proposed including the controversial Keystone pipeline in the bill. President Obama, temporarily abandoning “bipartisanship” in the face of truly terrible legislation, has promised to veto the bill in its current form.
