Transportation & Infrastructure

A push in Congress for broader gun rights is threatening to derail Amtrak and stall a transportation spending bill.

Just months after winning $8 billion for high-speed rail projects in the stimulus, mass transportation advocates are pressing Senate appropriators for billions more in the 2010 Department of Transportation spending bill.

Democrats are seizing on a GOP press release that said Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be “put in her place.”

Backers of the transportation bill have moved to option B — a three-month extension of the existing law.

• President Barack Obama nominated Barbara Bennett to become the chief financial officer of the Environmental Protection Agency. Bennett is a former senior executive vice president and CFO of Discovery Communications. She has worked as a consultant since 2007, and has served on the board of the National Rehabilitation Hospital and directs the investment committee of Presbyterian Homes & Family Services.

A major transportation union this week publicly boasted of the political influence it wields with the White House, but subsequently apologized to a congressional panel for the remark on Wednesday night.

The Senate late Thursday passed a $106 billion military supplemental to fund the U.S. military’s efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan after unraveling a controversy over photos of detainee abuse.

Lawmakers pushed back aggressively against the Obama administration Thursday as they moved forward with the long-anticipated highway bill.

Automakers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union urged lawmakers this week to oppose efforts to remove money for a “cash for clunkers” program from the war supplemental bill.

Vulnerable Democrats, already biting their nails about the cost of cap-and-trade and healthcare legislation, are blanching at the idea that the House could take up a gas tax.