With the White House and some in Congress against a gas-tax hike, lawmakers drafting a long-term highway-transit bill are hunting for other funding sources. An option gaining serious attention involves enhancing the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, which provides federal loans and loan guarantees for major projects. TIFIA’s appeal is its multiplier effect: A modest direct federal subsidy can support big loans, leveraging non-federal dollars to yield packages funding billion-dollar projects. TIFIA, launched in 1998, has a solid following. The Federal Highway Administration reports $6.3 billion in active TIFIA loans for 17 projects with a total cost of
A House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee chairman has told the General Service Administration’s Public Buildings Service that the panel will not approve any new GSA leases until the agency provides more information about its leased and owned properties, including those on which GSA loses money. At a March 10 hearing, subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) criticized GSA, which has many surplus properties. “Given the financial crisis facing our country, we must reduce the amount of money we spend to house federal employees,” he said. PBS Commissioner Robert Peck said he would provide the data Denham is seeking. GSA’s 2012 budget
Another short-term spending bill has advanced in Congress. The House on March 15 passed a measure to fund federal agencies through April 8, with $6 billion in spending cuts. The vote was 271-158. The cuts include all $894 million slated for the General Services Administration construction account. Senate approval of the measure is needed by March 18, when the current stopgap expires. Among the House bill’s $6 billion in cuts is $2.6 billion in earmarks, including the GSA construction money. The measure also trims GSA’s repairs and alterations account by $130 million but still leaves it with $284 million. Congress
With a current stopgap spending measure due to expire on March 18, House Republicans on March 11 introduced a further, three-week extension that includes an additional $6 billion in spending cuts, including a proposal to zero out the General Services Administration's new construction account. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that Senate Democrats had agreed to the House GOP's proposal, and said that the cuts in the bill had been "already proposed by Democrats." The new House GOP proposal, introduced by Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), would extend through April 8. Its $6 billion in cuts includes $2.6
States seeking the $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds that Florida's governor turned down will have to file new applications with the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Related Links: DOT Notice The deadline is tight: DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced late on March 11 that the deadline for applications for the funds is April 4. U.S. DOT had awarded the $2.4 billion to Florida last year, but the state's new governor, Rick Scott [R], turned it down. There is likely to be no shortage of competition for the money. LaHood said, "States across the country have been banging down our
As state transportation agency chiefs gathered for their annual winter meeting in Washington, D.C., they received some encouraging news from Congress on highway and transit funding for the short term, but not as many answers as they had hoped about the murky longer-range legislative picture. During the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ legislative briefing on March 2-4, Congress cleared—and President Obama signed—a bill that extends highway and transit authorizations for seven months, the seventh stopgap since the last multiyear measure lapsed in September 2009. Also enacted while the meeting proceeded was a temporary appropriations bill to keep
State and local transportation officials as well as firms that design and build roads and subway projects now have a bit more market stability, thanks to a newly enacted measure that extends federal highway and transit programs through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2011 fiscal year. The bill, which President Obama signed on March 4, freezes funding at fiscal 2010 levels for about seven months. The new measure’s highway obligation limit will be about $24 billion, or roughly 7/12ths of 2010’s full-year obligation ceiling of $41.1 billion. The legislation is the latest—and the second-longest—of seven extensions since Sept.
Construction’s February unemployment rate of 21.8% showed improvement over January’s 22.5% rate and was a substantial drop from February 2010’s 27.1%, but the industry’s jobless level remains the highest among U.S. industries, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Released on March 4, the BLS report shows that construction gained 33,000 jobs in February. However, BLS notes that the industry’s February pickup in jobs followed a January loss of 22,000 jobs, which “may have reflected severe winter weather.” Jobs increased in February in all construction segments, except non-residential building, which had a loss of 2,000 jobs. Specialty trade
In a move that will provide some stability for transportation construction, the Senate has approved a bill to extend federal highway and transit programs through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2011 fiscal year. Senate passage of the bill, which came on a March 3 voice vote, marks final congressional action on the measure, which provides an authorization of about seven months. The House had approved the bill one day earlier. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation on March 4. The bill would be the seventh stopgap highway-transit authorization since Sept. 30, 2009, when the last multi-year
In a move that will provide some stability for transportation construction, President Obama has signed legislation to extend federal highway and transit programs through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2011 fiscal year. Obama signed the measure on March 4, the date on which a previous short stopgap was slated to expire. Final congressional approval of the bill came on March 3, when the Senate passed it on a voice vote. The House had approved the measure one day earlier. The bill is the seventh stopgap highway-transit authorization since Sept. 30, 2009, when the last multi-year statute, the 2005
