Reconnecting America's Policy Director Sarah Kline released the following update, which covers the president's upcoming budget, TOD and Livable Communities legislation, the Sustainable Communities Partnership and the New Starts changes. There has been a significant amount of federal activity related to transportation and TOD in the last several weeks.  Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are expected to vote on surface transportation reauthorization bills the week of February 13, and the President’s FY2013 budget request will be released that week as well.  Major bills have been introduced in the Senate on TOD and Livable Communities.  The Federal Transit Administration has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to change the way that New Starts projects are evaluated.  All of this is occurring against the backdrop of the 2012 elections, which can heighten partisanship in an already contentious Congress. Surface Transportation Reauthorization The previous surface…