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2009 Stimulus Bill
Transit in the Obama Administration's 2009 Stimulus Bill
The “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”, also known as H.R.1, is a government spending plan intended to move the country out of an historic recession and to prevent economic disaster. The goals are job preservation and creation as well as infrastructure improvement, energy efficiency and investment in science. Priority is given to projects that can move quickly. For example, the House bill favors projects that can be awarded contracts within 90 days of the bill's passage — the so-called “shovel ready” projects.
This is an unprecedented opportunity to move the nation beyond an outdated, car-dependent transportation framework. Even though mass transit is one of the most effective job creators [1] and is considered far better for the environment than highway construction, it has typically received far less government funding than highways and automobile-related infrastructure. The 2009 stimulus packages certainly continues that trend.
The entire stimulus bill, with amendments, can be accessed at the Library of Congress.
This article tracks political support and opinions about the role of Transit in the Obama administration's 2009 stimulus bill.
Streetfilms on the Stimulus
Earl Blumenauer Talks Transit, Stimulus, Bikes and Obama:
NYS DOT Commisioner Astrid Glynn:
HOUSE BILL - PASSED JANUARY 28, 2009
The House of Representatives' version of the stimulus package was passed on January 28, 2009. It was given the distinguished title of "H.R.1", which is reserved for only the most important legislation. The transportation section begins on page 246 of the 680-page document. Read the entire document here (pdf).
Key provisions:
$1.1 billion for intercity rail ($800 million Amtrak and $300 million in grants to states)
$12 billion for mass transit (includes light rail, bus, subway, etc) [2]. $9 billion was provided in the original bill and an additional $3 billion was allocated in the Nadler Amendment.
Representative Peter DeFazio (D – OR), introduced an amendment that would provide $2 billion in operating costs to struggling transit agencies around the country. Despite the efforts of livable streets activists nationwide, including an action campaign from Transportation for America, the amendment was withdrawn due to procedural conflicts[8].
Unfortunately, the bill designates only $1.1 billion for intercity rail and Amtrak combined, far short of House transportation panel chair Jim Oberstar’s recommendation for $3.4 billion for passenger rail and a separate $1.5 billion to Amtrak.
The house bill also includes $30 billion in highway funding, which continues to dwarf transit funding, even though Representative Jerrold Nadler+ (D-NY08) did succeed in securing an additional $3 billion in transit money through a last-minute amendment. Rail funding seems to be a token inclusion and does not even come close to meeting current needs let alone future goals [3]. For example, the bill provides only $1.1 billion to cover the entire nation’s intercity rail needs, “when the northeast corridor alone has a $10 billion backlog according to the feds' own estimates” [4]
SENATE BILL - PASSED ON FEBRUARY 10, 2009
The Senate's amended version of the stimulus bill passed on Februrary 10, 2009 by a 61-37 party-line vote., with only three Republicans voting “yes” along with 56 Democrats and 2 independents.
Key provisions:
$3.1 billion for intercity rail ($850 million for Amtrak, $250 million state grants plus another $2 billion for high speed rail that was not even mentioned in the house bill)
$8.4 billion for mass transit (light rail, subway, bus, etc) [2]
There were a number of discouraging setbacks for green transportation during the crafting of the Senate bill. First, the Senate version allocates more than $3 billion less to transit compared to the House version. Transit's future was looking even worse when Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator James Inhofe+ (R-OK) proposed an amendment to direct another $50 billion to highway projects [5]. But several Democratic senators refused to support the amendment unless a significant proportion of the funds was shifted to public transit and clean water infrastructure; the amendment never passed [6]. Furthermore, Senator Barbara Mikulski+ (D-MD) offered up an amendment that would give a tax break to new-car buyers to bring more people into dealer showrooms. This amendment passed 71-26 [9].
On the positive side, in contrast to the House version, $2 billion was provided to kick-start high speed rail systems (although, for perspective, the planned San Francisco-to-Los Angeles HSR line alone is estimated to cost $45 billion). The Senate bill also includes a requirement that stimulus projects come under environmental review via the National Environmental Policy Act [7]. Such a measure could slow the approval of highway projects, though it is worth considering that a huge number of destructive highway and housing projects have been allowed under NEPA over the last 30 years.
COMPROMISE BILL - RAIL UP, TRANSIT DOWN
A compromise between the Senate and House versions was negotiated in a conference committee on February 11, 2009. A very limited number of senators, none of whom are obviously pro-transit, represented the Senate side: Democrats Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Daniel Inouye and Republicans Charles Grassley and Thad Cochran. The House team consisted of Democrats David Obey, Charles Rangel and Henry Waxman; Republicans Dave Camp and Jeff Lewis.
- $8.4 billion for transit
- $8 billion for high-speed rail
- $1.3 billion for Amtrak
- $29 billion for highway and bridges
Even with the enormous highway number, the good news is that rail and transit have grown proportionally compared to past transportation bills. The committee raised Amtrak's funding from ~$800 million to $1.3 billion, close to what was originally recommended by James Oberstar. The standout here is the number for high-speed rail, which was quadrupled from the Senate's proposal. Apparently the Obama administration, along with Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), pushed hard for HSR, with a future Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail line in mind [12].
Conference committee negotiations can produce dramatic shifts in funding, both for good and for bad. Unfortunately, the extra $3 billion for transit won by the Nadler amendment was gone in one fell swoop, illustrating the dangers of handing such an important bill to a small committee.
It is unclear how much of the highway funds will go to repairing existing infrastructure and how much will be directed toward new roads and highway expansions.
FINAL PACKAGE - BETTER THAN EXPECTED
President Obama signed the final version of the stimulus bill into law on February 17, 2009.
A closer look at the numbers reveals good news: a full 3 percent of the “highway” funds will actually pave the way for pedestrian and bicyclist facilities, through the Transportation Enhancements program [13]. In addition, 16% of the highway funds will got through city departments, which are more likely than state DOTs to fund progressive transportation projects [14]. Both of these percentages are significantly larger than anything seen in President Bush’s 2005 transportation package, known as
SAFETEA-LU
.
However, the bill did little to correct the longstanding bias against transit and the tendency for states to invest almost exclusively in highway projects. There is hope that the upcoming transportation re-authorization bill (the new version of SAFETEA-LU) will do much more to support transit, walkable neighborhoods and
complete streets
.
ADVOCACY
- Transportation for America petition to include more money for transit in the stimulus bill
- Friends of The Earth action alert: Keep the Stimulus Green
Stimulus Bike - Petition page - Up to date list of several petitions and advocacy on transportation funding in the stimulus bill
POLITICIANS
PRO-TRANSIT
CONGRESS:
-
Minnesota Dem, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Advocates that mass transit should receive a significant portion of the proposed transportation stimulus money.
-
Senator Dick Durbin+ (D-IL)
- Senator Charles Schumer+ (D-NY): unveiled an amendment that would have added $6.5 in transit funding to the senate stimulus bill, though the amendment was never introduced [10].
- Rep. Peter DeFazio+ (D-OR) - fought for increased transit funding in the stimulus
- Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) - through a successful amendment, bolstered transit funding in the house stimulus bill by $3 billion.
- Earl Blumenauer
MAYORS/ LOCAL:
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Michael Nutter: Philadelphia mayor hand-delivers message requesting TARP money for cities.
-
Michael Bloomberg
-
Janette Sadik-Khan , Commissioner of NYC DOT
CON/UNKNOWN
Chair of House appropriations committee intends to funnel stimulus money to states:
-
Senator Kit Bond+
(R-MO) - proposed to redirect the already meager rail/transit funds to highways in the 2009 stimulus. Luckily his amendments never made it to the floor.
- Barbara Mikukski (D-MD) - introduced amendment giving tax breaks to new car buyers.
- "Mikulski: My Amendment is about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" (S. MD Online)
UNKNOWN
Transportation secretary Ray LaHood. His attitudes toward transit and car alternatives are not well-known:
- Senator
Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) - Usually a reliable progressive, Senator Boxer sought dramatic increases in highway funds.
ANALYSIS & OPINION
- Gregor Macdonald
http://gregor.us/policy/the-obama-planfiasco-potential-is-high/
- Matthew Yglesias
Makes the case that stimulus money should go directly to cities and transit agencies to fund bus expansion
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/26090.php
- Seattle Transit Blog
Obama's plan is too heavy on roads and light on transit. This is an excellent article with cost-benefit numbers for roads and transit:
http://seattletransitblog.com/2008/12/15/obamas-stimulus-plan-may-need-a-roads-diet/
Mass Transit is an effective way of creating jobs:
http://seattletransitblog.com/2008/03/16/want-to-boost-the-economy-george-build-transit/
- Gary Toth
Gary Toth, a former director of project planning at NJDOT who now heads up transportation initiatives at Project for Public Spaces, has reviewed some of the state lists and what he turned up isn't pretty. "Florida's list is three-quarters expansion, 10 percent fix-it-first," he said in an email message. "On the highway side, Wisconsin asks for over $3 billion for two big expansion projects, less than $100 million for fix-it-first. Utah's list is almost exclusively populated with expansion projects; Missouri is two thirds; Kansas, three-quarters." Throwing all those billions at traffic-generating highway capacity projects would come at the direct expense of greener modes and overdue maintenance.
- Transportation for America
They have an analysis of transportation and transit stimulus wish lists by state:
http://t4america.org/blog/archives/582
- David Burwell
A co-founder of the Surface Transportation Policy Project who is currently a strategic consultant with the Transportation for America campaign:
"The best defense on how these moneys are going to be spent is to sub-allocate it, because it's the cities that build the bike paths, it's the cities that build the transit systems, it's the cities that run the bus lines, it's the cities that run the rail stations. If you want this money spent on new green infrastructure, get it to the cities. It's the states that run the highway system. If you give all the money to the states, you know exactly what they're going to spend the money on. I'd rather have Janette Sadik-Khan and Mayor Bloomberg decide how to spend this money than the division administrator of the state DOT."
http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/12/16/why-stimulus-money-should-go-to-cities-not-states/
- Michael Replogle, Transportation Director, Environmental Defense Fund
http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/contributors/Replogle.php
- The Economist is concerned that stimulus money will fund bridges to nowhere:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/391783_publicworksonline12.html
- US PIRG analyzes state requests:
- Nathan Newman, TPM: Steel industry supports mass transit:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/02/the_coalition_for_mass_transit/
Stimulus Bike, A website and blog following the stimulus bill and its tax act, with the goal of promoting awareness for metropolitan planning organizations to fund alternative infrastructure, esp. cycling related:
http://stimulusbike.typepad.com
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] Pollin, R. and H. Garrett-Peltier. The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities (pdf). Institute for Policy Studies. October 2007. via Grist.
[2] Final Senate Compromise Appears to Avoid Cutting Transit. The Transport Politic. February 7, 2009.
[3] Stimulus Bill Text. The Transport Politic. January 15, 2009.
[4]Dems Release Stimulus Draft. Streetsblog.
[5] It Gets Worse: Boxer/Inhoffe to Request $50 Billion More for New Highways. Streetsblog, February 3, 2009.
[6] Senate’s 50-Billion Highway Giveaway Nearly Dead. Streetsblog, February 5, 2009.
[7] Senate Requires Environmental Approval of Stimulus Projects, Streetsblog, February 9, 2009.
[8] Rep. DeFazio's Amendment Denied. Streetsblog, January 26, 2009.
[9] Another Gift to the Auto Industry. The Boston Globe, February 7, 2009.
[10] Tell Your Senator to Support Transit and Green Jobs, Not Highways. Streetsblog, February 3. 2009.
[11] Transportation numbers emerge on the stimulus. Transportation for America. February 12, 2009.
[12] Economic stimulus package on track for final votes. The Associated Press, February 12, 2009.
[13] Fact Sheet on Highway Provisions: Transportation Enhancements Program. Federal Highway Administration.
[14] Stimulus Bill a Step Forward for Pedestrians, Cyclists & Cities. Streetsblog, February 18, 2009.
PICTURE REFERENCES
[2] Image courtesy of Parliament of Canada
