If California didn’t pass the bonds for the first stage of its high speed rail project last Friday, I don’t think this happens. Amtrak has unveiled their new vision for the Northeast Corridor, the most-used rail lines in the country, with a 42-page report outlining the future of high speed rail in the Northeast. Idealab [...]

House Republicans are honoring a deep tradition in American politics by trying to save their political skins and their majority through the passage of a highway bill. In past years these would be earmark-laden affairs designed to channel resources to particular districts and bolster the case for re-election. That’s not quite the case this year. [...]

Negotiators for the House and Senate reached agreement on a temporary spending bill that will fund the government through December 16 and also finish off a series of appropriations bills. So now, we’ll begin to see the true impact of budget freezes and austerity measures. One of the first victims is the Commodity Futures Trading [...]

It’s Chuck Schumer Day here at FDL News Desk. Schumer, in addition to smack-talking John Boehner on the debt limit, came out with two policy ideas over the weekend, one abominable and one that has quite a bit of merit. See if you can guess which one got more attention. The abominable one, of course, [...]

A good deal of money earmarked for high speed rail was sacrificed in the 2011 appropriations deal. Billions of federal dollars will not go toward constructing a networked of high speed rail lines across the country. However, the Transportation Department has been able to award willing states with grants, mainly because of money turned down [...]