Though the cause of the accident is still speculated, especially following two recent rail accidents nationally in the past year, officials said today the Metro train car involved was two months past due for scheduled maintenance on its brakes, and the car was an older model that federal officials had recommended be replaced because of concerns about its safety in a crash.

Chairman Jim Oberstar (D., MN) and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the full 775-page Transportation Bill text.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was the first and most popular New Deal program. Millions of young men who could not find work signed up to be part of Roosevelt's "forest army." They planted trees, fought forest fires, and built trails and buildings we still use today.

The WPA was one of Roosevelt's most controversial programs. It put millions of people to work doing things like painting murals, sewing clothes, running nursery schools and serving school lunches. But most WPA workers built things. Their legacy is all around us.

The Public Works Administration left an enormous legacy of public works. PWA workers built projects in all but three counties in the United States, but many of the structures they left behind have no plaque mentioning the PWA. Americans use these structures every day without realizing where they came from.

It is fairly understood that America’s transportation infrastructure is in crisis. In 2008, the Federal Highway Trust Fund – the primary source of federal transportation funding –- nearly went bankrupt. And, it is about to again. Its main source of revenue –- the federal gas tax -- has not been raised since 1993 and the cost of maintaining and upgrading the nation’s roads and bridges increased 50 percent in the last ten years.

Extended interviews from Blueprint America: Road to the Future.

Extended interviews from Blueprint America: Road to the Future.

Extended interviews from Blueprint America: Road to the Future.