In an effort to create more jobs and improve transportation, the Obama administration announced a new "Use It or Lose It" program Friday, making nearly $500 million in unspent earmarks available for states to use on so-called "shovel ready" infrastructure projects.
President Barack Obama signed on Friday a transportation funding and student loan bill which passed Congress last week in a rare election-year compromise between Republicans and Democrats.
Congress gave final approval Friday to a giant transportation funding bill as part of a package that includes a measure holding down interest rates on federal student loans.
After months of difficult talks, bipartisan House and Senate negotiators reached a tentative deal on a giant transportation funding bill Wednesday, multiple sources tell CNN. A formal announcement is expected late Wednesday night after the last details are hammered out and the final language is drafted, they said.
Rep. Buzz McKeon comes OutFront to discuss whether Congress will be able to make a deal on spending cuts.
House GOP leaders are expected to discuss whether or not to extend a rate cut on student loans at a meeting Wednesday morning.
Congressional negotiators facing a June 30 deadline before federal money runs out for highway construction projects across the country have the choice of punting a 10th consecutive time with a short-term extension or compromising on a multi-year bill.
Calling it the single largest crackdown on bus companies that the Department of Transportation has ever undertaken, Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday the agency has shut down 26 bus operators for breaking federal safety rules.
The Keystone XL pipeline has turned into a poster child for political posturing. While it is merely one of many pipelines crisscrossing North America, this project has become "red meat" that both sides of the congressional aisle are using to weaken each other in an election season. To make matters more complicated, Canadian public and private-sector officials have jumped into the fray by coming to town to extol the virtues of the pipeline.
With just months to go before the presidential campaign ends all meaningful activity on Capitol Hill, members of Congress are struggling to move a few must-pass pieces of legislation. One of the most pressing is the highway bill, which Congress is considering this week. Not only does all federal funding for transportation depend on passing a bill by March 31; the highway trust fund itself is scheduled to go broke in 2013 and the deal in the making pays for only two years.
A $109 billion transportation bill won approval Wednesday from the Senate but still faces likely political wrangling in the House.
Argentina's president declared a two-day mourning period after a commuter train plowed into a barrier at a Buenos Aires station, killing 50 people and injuring hundreds more.
Dozens are killed and more than 600 injured in a train crash in Buenos Aires. CNN's Luis Carlos Velez reports.
House Speaker John Boehner told his Republican caucus Wednesday that the House will postpone voting on a massive transportation and energy bill until after the congressional recess scheduled for next week, according to multiple House Republican leadership aides.
President Barack Obama wants to raise the Department of Transportation budget by 2% next year.
Could tractor-trailer rigs almost as long as Boeing 737s be driving on a highway near you? If a new transportation bill proposed by House Republicans passes, the answer is yes, and the safety ramifications would be astronomical, say congressional opponents of the bill and the AAA Auto Club.
Coast Guard crews were among those working Friday to reinforce a southwestern Kentucky bridge that partially collapsed after being hit by a 312-foot cargo ship.
All 50 states plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., submitted applications to the Department of Transportation for grants to fund DOT projects, but -- in a sign of tough economic times coupled with a shortage of federal dollars -- not everyone is finding presents under the federal Christmas tree this year.
Based on recent history and what's likely to happen to the nation's infrastructure, it's an inescapable conclusion: We will need new and different sources of funding if we are to have the type of transportation system that is needed to support economic prosperity.
A perpetual deadlock in Congress has resulted in eight extensions of the national transportation bill, causing roads to crumble, bridges to fall, and transit to break down.
American Eagle suffered a dubious distinction Monday, becoming the first airline to get fined for excessive tarmac delays, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
President Barack Obama called on Congress Wednesday to quickly renew legislation critical to the maintenance and improvement of the nation's highway system, warning that failure to do so could have disastrous economic consequences.
Thousands of employees have been furloughed and dozens of major projects put on hold after Congress failed to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency said Monday.
Almost 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration workers are facing furloughs after Congress adjourned Friday without passing a measure to reauthorize the agency's funding, according to the Transportation Department.
The company that operated a commercial tour bus involved in a deadly crash this week has been issued a cease-and-desist order after the U.S. Department of Transportation said it tried to resume operations under a different name.
Several fatalities and numerous injuries were reported after a bus crashed on I-95 in Caroline County, Virginia. (no audio)
The driver of a commercial tour bus that crashed this week, killing four people and injuring 53, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, a prosecutor confirmed Friday.
Washington lawmakers are kicking around a new idea to help raise funds to fix our highways and infrastructure: a national driving tax charging motorists by the mile.
Gov. Rick Scott turns down federal funding for a high speed rail project saying "the risks outweigh the benefits."
Rail riders along the California coast and the Boston-Washington "Northeast Corridor" are set to reap much of the benefits from $2 billion that Florida policymakers had earlier rejected for high-speed rail development.
The Federal Aviation Administration has fired two air traffic controllers, one of whom worked in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the other in Miami, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Monday that the Obama administration will push legislation designed to overhaul and upgrade America's aging oil and gas pipeline network.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gov. Rick Scott can reject $2.4 billion in federal money that would have funded a proposed high-speed rail system in the state.
A proposed high-speed rail line in Florida may not be dead after all.
President Obama's 2012 budget proposal isn't all slash and burn.
Don't underestimate the power of a spilled cup of coffee.
The new airline tarmac delay rule seems to be working. October was completely free of tarmac delays lasting more than three hours, according to the latest Department of Transportation air travel report released Tuesday.
In some post-election hardball between the Obama administration and newly-elected Republicans, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is threatening to take back stimulus funds from states if they do not follow through on proposed rail projects.
In some post-election hardball between the Obama administration and newly elected Republicans, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is threatening to take back stimulus funds from states if they do not follow through on proposed rail projects.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off a summit on distracted driving Tuesday by announcing new regulations intended to prevent accidents involving drivers trying to text or talk on cell phones while operating a vehicle.
Distracted driving claimed the same percentage of overall traffic deaths in 2009 as in 2008, according to numbers released Monday, meaning it's still a big problem across the country, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says.
Iran's transportation minister says the Islamic republic is sending home Russian pilots who fly for Iranian airlines, according to local reports.
The Toyota Motor Corp. has indicated to the U.S. government it will pay a $16.4 million fine -- the largest ever against an automaker -- for failing to notify the Department of Transportation of a "sticky pedal" defect in its cars for at least four months, according to a senior Transportation Department official.
A federal court ordered Tierra Santa Inc., the bus company involved in a wreck that killed six passengers last week, to cease interstate and international operations, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Sunday.
Toyota executives told lawmakers Tuesday that its U.S. and Canadian divisions will have more authority to decide when to issue a recall as the automaker faces mounting pressure from Washington over its recent safety problems.
Top Democrats tore into one of their Republican counterparts Monday for blocking an extension of unemployment benefits that would provide assistance to millions of jobless Americans.
Department of Transportation secretary Ray LaHood on Monday blamed a senator's filibuster for furloughing thousands of federal employees and threatening state jobs while shutting down highway construction projects nationwide.
Most of the $8 billion in high-speed rail funds that President Obama awarded last month will not be used for high-speed projects, but rather to improvements designed to make existing lines faster.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood clarifies his statement on what Toyota drivers should do with their cars.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood caused a stir Wednesday when he told owners of recalled Toyotas to stop driving their cars, took back that wording, and said he meant to tell worried owners to take their cars to the dealer for a fix.
New rules free up food for travelers stuck on the tarmac. CNN talks to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about the plan.
Joe Marshall was cruising across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge when a piece of steel and a giant cable crashed down.
Airline passengers who were trapped on tarmacs "like sardines in a can" had their opportunity to air their grievances Tuesday at an unofficial Capitol Hill hearing that shared some of the characteristics of those flights.
A poor decision by a regional airline was being blamed Friday for Continental Airlines passengers getting stranded overnight as their plane sat on a tarmac in Minnesota, federal transportation officials said Friday.
Arrests for women driving under the influence jumped by nearly 30 percent during the decade ending in 2007, according to a study released Wednesday by the U.S. Transportation Department.
Some 14 states have only a few weeks left to gain approval for highway projects or risk losing millions of stimulus dollars.
President Obama describes work that will be done to revamp the nation's infrastructure.
The Obama administration will not support a policy of taxing drivers based on their mileage, the Transportation Department said Friday after a published interview in which Secretary Ray LaHood called it an idea "we should look at."
The nation's roads, bridges, power grid, water supply, schools and transit systems are all in a state of disrepair due to under-funding - and the proposed stimulus plan will not go far enough to solve the problem, according to a report released Wednesday.
President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate Republican Ray LaHood of Illinois to be his transportation secretary.
President-elect Barack Obama unveiled a diverse group of nominees Friday to round out his Cabinet and economic team.
Labor unions Thursday praised President-elect Barack Obama's selection to head the Labor Department, Rep. Hilda Solis.
Driving in America has undergone its most dramatic continuous decline in history, the Department of Transportation said Friday.
Traffic fatalities nationwide are expected to decline about 10 percent this year, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said Thursday.
America's roads and bridges need critical repairs that would total $64 billion, and construction could begin within six months if the federal government makes the funds available, according to a new report.
A report obtained by CNN's Abbie Boudreau lists more than 5,100 construction projects in the U.S., but who's funding them?
The economy isn't the only thing falling apart in the United States.
Americans drove 3.6 percent less in July 2008 than they did during July 2007, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said Tuesday.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's transportation department has completed a $25 million gravel road leading to the site of a bridge that Palin, as John McCain's vice presidential candidate, now boasts that she stopped
An unprecedented decline in driving will deplete the federal Highway Trust Fund by the end of September and prompted the Bush administration on Friday to ask Congress for an $8 billion emergency infusion.
One year after the Minnesota bridge collapse, are U.S. roads and bridges safer? Randi Kaye reports.
Mercedes Gorden remembers August 1, 2007, like it was yesterday.
Safety advocates went to federal court Thursday asking judges to block a Transportation Department rule on work hours for truckers.
The National Transportation Safety Board has released dramatic animation of two runway near-collisions this year to illustrate what the agency says is the need for improvements in runway safety.
President Bush said Thursday that he has asked his transportation secretary to make sure that travelers delayed at airports are treated fairly.
Ford's new Edge crossover SUV earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's "Top safety pick" award, getting top scores for front, side and rear impact safety.
The Nissan Versa got top marks in crash test results released Tuesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, though bigger cars still offer greater safety than small cars, the Institute said.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the only Democrat in the Bush Cabinet, is resigning next month.
With better crash safety engineered into passenger vehicles and front airbags now required equipment, side impacts account for more driver deaths than frontal impacts in newer cars, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The safest minivan isn't made by Honda, Toyota or Chrysler, according to recently completed tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Korean-made Kia Sedona earned the Institute's "Gold Top Safety Pick" award, getting top marks for front crash, side crash and whiplash protection.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving's efforts have cut into legal, social drinking, according to comments by a trade group of restaurant owners in a newspaper report Thursday, but the group is winning praise from an insurance group.
Headrests in most minivans don't provide enough protection in the case of a rear-end crash, according to an insurance industry auto group.
A study released Tuesday said drivers who use cell phones -- even hands-free models -- are four times as likely to be involved in wrecks involving a serious injury than are drivers who do not use cell phones.
Eight large cars scored top ratings in frontal crash tests recently conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
After naming the Ford Focus as one of its recommended vehicles in March, then quickly dropping that recommendation following a "Poor" rating in a side-impact crash test, Consumer Reports magazine is now changing its system for rating cars.
Computer problems, labor issues and bad weather stranded holiday travelers over the weekend, with US Airways and Delta Air Lines' Comair unit left to pick up the pieces Monday.
Widely dispersed populations connected by narrow two-lane highways are a recipe for dangerous driving, according to a simple look at state-by-state traffic fatality counts as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In new crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the 2004 Toyota Rav4 became the first vehicle to earn a double "Best Pick" rating: one for side-impact safety and one for frontal-crash safety. It earned that rating, however, only when equipped with optional side air bags.
Consider these items: construction of a $7 million ''Renaissance Square'' performing arts center in Rochester, New York; a $1.5 million improvement for the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan; and the $1 million renovation of a historic bus station in Jessup, Georgia.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Safety Administration released rollover ratings for 2004 sport utility vehicles today.
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