Re “At Last, a Transportation Bill” (editorial, July 2): The bipartisan surface transportation bill will finance highway, bridge and public transportation projects for 27 months, saving and creating close to three million jobs a year. This bill includes significant reforms to modernize federal transportation programs, including eliminating earmarks, introducing performance measures and targets to improve accountability, expanding innovative financing programs to leverage limited federal resources, and consolidating programs by two-thirds to increase efficiency and flexibility for states and cities. This legislation actually increases the amount of financing that “transportation alternative” projects like bicycle and pedestrian pathways are eligible for, although in some cases these projects must compete for money. The bill expedites project delivery. Projects with less than $5 million in federal money are categorically excluded from reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, but they must still comply with other environmental laws and federal permitting requirements. (Senator) BARBARA BOXER
Washington, July 2, 2012 The writer, a California Democrat, is chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
