As ballots continue to be counted across the country, a number of tightly contested congressional races that the ATSSA Government Relations Team has been tracking, have been declared winners.

Among them was House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D) fended off a challenge from political newcomer Alex Skarlatos to win Oregon’s 4^th District.

Transportation-related statewide ballot initiatives that ATSSA is tracking passed in four states.

ATSSA’s Government Relations Team is monitoring the 2020 election results and will be reporting on key races important to transportation and infrastructure when they are available. As we all know, this is an election like no other and the timing of the results is unpredictable but know that our team is on it.

Once results are clear, we’ll post them here along with GR Team analysis and insights.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is scheduled for a final vote Nov. 18 on reallocating a portion of the 5.9 GHz spectrum band, commonly known as the safety spectrum, for Wi-Fi.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed sharing the spectrum a year ago and this week reiterated his support for the idea saying that “making more spectrum available for Wi-Fi is critical to meeting America’s growing connectivity need,” Reuters reported.

As reported here, from the outset, ATSSA and others including the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) and the Department of Defense opposed the idea for safety and security reasons.

The Senate this evening approved a one-year extension of the federal highway bill, which would have expired at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.

The extension was included in a continuing resolution (CR) passed by both chambers to avert a government shutdown. The stopgap bill pushes the deadline to pass the yearly spending budgets for the federal government to Dec. 11.

The Senate approved the action by an 84-10 vote.

Pedestrians take the forefront in October with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) holding its first “Pedestrian Safety Month,” a national educational outreach to heighten awareness for motorists and pedestrians of all ages.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) held a Summit on Pedestrian Safety in July during which groups representing both pedestrian and bicyclist organizations took part.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety offers a “focused approach” program to target specific issues including pedestrian and bicyclist safety in jurisdictions across the nation. It offers examples of programs that have undertaken changes to target this issue.