Congressional appropriators are making headway on fiscal year 2010 spending bills, raising hopes that a few of the 12 annual funding measures may be wrapped up before fiscal 2010 starts on Oct. 1. That would be a welcome change from the past few years, when stopgap “continuing resolutions” were the norm. In results so far, the big construction program winner is Environmental Protection Agency water infrastructure, which is heading for a major boost. In the transportation sector, small increases seem likely, except for the high-speed rail area, which could rise sharply.

The House has approved all 12 of the appropriations measures for 2010, each of which funds a group of federal agencies. The Senate has passed four, and its Appropriations Committee cleared seven of the remaining eight.

When the Senate returns on Sept. 8, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the chamber will get back to appropriations bills. “We have eight to go,” he said before the August recess. “It would be terrific [to] finish four more before the first of October.”

Among construction sectors, EPA water infrastructure would get a 38% hike under the House-passed bill that funds the agency and a 67% jump in the version the Senate committee approved. Within those totals, Clean Water state revolving- fund aid would more than triple from this year’s $689 million. Increases of that size are “long overdue” for those programs, says Jeffrey Shoaf, the Associated General Contractors’ senior executive director for government and public affairs.

In transportation, high-speed rail would receive $4 billion in the House bill and $1.2 billion in the Senate committee’s measure. For highways, “The obligation limit...looks relatively firm,” at $41.1 billion in both 2010 appropriations bills, says Jack Basso, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ director of program, finance and management. If an authorization measure also is enacted by the fiscal year’s end, “the number could change dramatically... and, we hope, go higher,” Basso adds.