New water-resources legislation, including funds for Army Corps of Engineers projects, continues to advance on Capitol Hill as Senate and House lawmakers seek to follow recent history by enacting such legislation every two years.
As advocates for spending more on highways, transit, water and other public-works projects gathered for the sixth annual Infrastructure Week’s more than 100 media events and panel discussions, it was clear that a wide-ranging bill won’t be coming this year.
A U.S. Dept. of Transportation plan to reshape and rename the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grants has come under fire from senior Senate appropriators. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee responsible for DOT’s budget, and Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the panel’s top Democrat, say DOT’s plan to make states’ and localities’ ability to raise transportation revenue a grant-selection criterion is a bad idea.