Audrey Dutton

WASHINGTON — Improving economic conditions are likely to put new stresses on the nation’s roads, airports and ports in 2011, but congressional gridlock could stymie efforts to pass already delayed funding packages for capital investments in surface transportation and the air-travel network.

WASHINGTON — President Obama has signed into law a short-term extension of federal government spending, including funds for bond-related programs, through March 4. The continuing resolution will prevent a government shutdown and continue programs until after Republicans assume control of the House and begin wielding more power in the Senate.

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a measure to keep the federal government and some of its bond-related programs funded through March 4, by which time Republicans will control the House and wield considerable bargaining power in the Senate.

WASHINGTON — The outlook for public power utilities is uncertain for next year, as federal regulators ramp up efforts to implement greenhouse-gas regulations and states and regions push for developing more renewable energy sources.

Senate Democrats are pushing for an omnibus appropriations measure to keep the federal government and bond-related programs funded through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2011, instead of moving forward with a continuing resolution that was approved by the House last week.

WASHINGTON — Researchers for the Center on Law and Public Finance are refuting the notion that partisanship has dominated the issuance of Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — Federal transportation officials Thursday reclaimed $1.195 billion of high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants from Ohio and Wisconsin. The funds will be parceled out to several states, the U.S. Department of Transportation said after warning last month that incoming Republican governors in the two states must use the funds for rail or lose them entirely.

Two bipartisan groups are pressing federal lawmakers and the president to get cracking on a solution to the funding crisis troubling the nation's transportation sector. They warned that Congress needs to find a new revenue source instead of leaning on proposals for a national infrastructure bank or increased privatization.

WASHINGTON — Raymond Scheppach, longtime executive director of the National Governors Association, announced Thursday that he will leave the group early next year to become a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and senior fellow for economic policy at its Miller Center of Public Affairs.

WASHINGTON — State revenue growth will not bounce back to pre-recession levels until 2013 or 2014, according to new data released Wednesday by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

WASHINGTON — State budget conditions will improve slightly this fiscal year, even though states will continue to be under considerable financial stress, according to a biennial report to be released Wednesday by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

WASHINGTON - Chicago asked the Federal Aviation Administration to extend until July 31 the deadline on its application to privatize Midway International Airport.

Bond attorney and longtime market participant Linda Grant Williams has secured a patent on an alternative credit structure that is designed to lower interest rates on special facility bonds for ­airports.

Port authorities are pushing for Congress to reauthorize a five-year program that provides them with millions of dollars of federal grants.

The Internal Revenue Service yesterday released guidance clarifying that Jan. 1 is the deadline for issuers to receive tax benefits on “draw-down bonds” that are eligible for temporary bond programs, including Build America Bonds.

California, New York, and Illinois are making a play for more than $1.2 billion of high-speed rail funding that was awarded to two Midwestern states whose Republican governors-elect plan to reject the grants.

States and localities pay for a much larger share of transportation and water infrastructure projects than the federal government, but in recent years the total amount of money spent on these projects by all levels of government has declined significantly, according to a 62-page report issued this week by the Congressional Budget Office.

WASHINGTON — Airport executives made one more attempt this week to convince Senate tax lawmakers to extend two popular bond-financing provisions beyond the end of this year so that airports can continue to borrow at lower rates.

The Environmental Protection Agency last week issued guidance to state authorities on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other large facilities, in advance of its new Clean Air Act rules that will take effect Jan. 2.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is warning the incoming Republican governors of two Midwestern states that unless they use certain grant funding for high-speed rail projects, they will lose the funds entirely.