The House of Representatives voted on the 2011 appropriations bill for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development yesterday, stripping $200 million from liveability initiatives that the Obama administration wanted.
Highways and transit both received increased funding, but liveability initiatives - "money that would have been used to help states coordinate transportation, land use, and conservation policy," writes Streetsblog, took a big hit.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Congressman Earl Blumenauer fought to preserve the funding, but they were up against resistance in the form of Congressmen Peter DeFazio and James Oberstar:
"DeFazio and Oberstar don't want federal transportation policy to be written through the appropriations process, so they were willing to kill the livability funding, even if they may have supported it on the merits, in order to prevent a precedent from being set."
FULL STORY: House Approves Transpo Spending Bill After Stripping Out $ for Livability
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