{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://donovan.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/new-york-city-sees-many-wins-federal-transportation-bill", "New York City sees many wins in federal transportation bill", "2015-12-03", "2015", "2015-12", "Republican", "House", "NY", "Daniel Donovan", "D000625", "donovan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "On Tuesday, with Congress poised to approve the most comprehensive transportation bill in years, Mayor Bill de Blasios senior legislative adviser in Washington, D.C., sent out an internal memo declaring the pending legislation a victory for New York City.\nNYCs top priorities are included in the conferenced transportation authorization, Georgia Gann, de Blasio's senior legislative adviser specializing in infrastructure issues, stated in a memo circulated to Hill staffers working for New York Citys congressional delegation.\nSince then, the House of Representatives has approved the $305 billion, five-year bill. The Senate is expected to approve it shortly.\nNot only does the five-year legislation provide relatively long-term transportation fundingfor the first time since 2005, it increases funding for New York City by about $500 million, or $100 million a year, Gann's memo stated. Even better, it noted, the legislation rolls back threats to cut transit funding for New York subway and bus riders, instead increasing funding for core transit programs that benefit NYC.\nDe Blasio has lobbied steadily for more federal transportation funding, in Washington and here at home, bothwith the U.S. Conference of Mayorsand without.\nAs recently aslast Tuesday, de Blasio showed up at Penn Station to demand more federal transportation funding. Republican officials like Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino appeared alongside him,prompting Gov. Andrew Cuomo to snipe at him, and Astorino to imply there was something wrong with the governor's mental fitness.\nStaten Islands Dan Donovan, New York Citys lone Republican in Congress, was also at that press conference.\nDan being the only member of the majority, he has access to the majority conferees that other representatives dont have, said Patrick Ryan, Donovans spokesman.\nOn Thursday, Ryan said the transportation bill includes about $3 million a year for the Staten Island Ferry, which was Donovans main focus, as well as a priority for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.\nNew York also had the benefit of being able to count two Democrats  Rep. Jerry Nadler and Sen. Chuck Schumer  among the conferees who hammered out the differences between the House and Senate legislation.\nIn his memo, Gann listed plenty of other wins for non-Staten Islanders.\nThe bill does away with the $80 million a year in threatened cuts to New York City transit.\nIt increases funding for a program called Small Starts, which could benefit New York Citys plans for an ambitious bus rapid transit line on Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens.\nThe bill also, unusually, includes money for Amtrak, whose Northeast Corridor line runs through New York City and is in dire need of repair.\n\"We are hopeful that Congress will quickly pass this bill, which would reverse the transit cut and secure the increased funding for our roads, bridges, transit, and ferries for which Mayor de Blasio and a broad coalition of leaders have long fought, de Blasio spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick, said in an email.\nRead the memo here:https://politi.co/1NsK2DR", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://donovan.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/new-york-city-sees-many-wins-federal-transportation-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4142959844321012, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}