Audrey Dutton

Transportation officials and an advocacy group in Virginia are battling over whether a Virginia or District of Columbia judge should decide whether drivers on the Dulles Toll Road are being illegally charged tolls used to back bonds issued for the Dulles Metrorail project.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation’s inspector general is warning that at least 10 airport improvement program grants distributed by the Federal Aviation Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “may have questionable economic merit or could involve recipients that have had grant management problems.”

The Federal Railroad Administration last week released an early draft of a national rail plan that includes alternative-financing strategies that could involve bonds.

WASHINGTON — State tax collections suffered from a record-setting decline in the second quarter of 2009, with almost all states reporting a drop in total tax revenue during the quarter, the Rockefeller Institute of Government said in a report issued yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Rail advocates are urging the federal government to partner with states to develop a national high-speed rail network. The partnership should be modeled after the Interstate highway system, and Washington should share the costs of projects and create a dedicated funding source similar to the federal highway trust fund, they told members of the House Transportation rail subcommittee Wednesday afternoon.

The Federal Railroad Administration was so swamped with applications for the $8 billion of high-speed rail funding authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that it is delaying until the winter its announcement of the grant winners.

The National Governors Association adopted a policy opposing federal restrictions on public-private partnerships after a multiyear transportation authorization bill introduced in the House proposed creating a federal office to oversee see P3s on highways that receive federal aid.

WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday signed a one-month stopgap measure to keep the U.S. government — including bond-related programs — from shutting down while Congress tries to move forward with annual appropriations bills.

WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office expects to publicly release analysis on Build America Bonds issuance in February as part of a report on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for state and local governments.

WASHINGTON - Congress has until tomorrow, the end of the fiscal year, to approve a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded.

WASHINGTON - Airports are likely to face financial difficulties into next year because, despite their successful efforts to stabilize their debt portfolios, they are expected to have a continued slump in airline passenger traffic, Fitch Ratings said in a recent report.

Senate staff and state officials worried during a conference here last week that legislation pending before the House Transportation Committee would go too far by creating a federal office with the power to reject public-private partnership agreements for highways that received federal aid.

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell said yesterday that he supports delaying a reauthorization of the current six-year transportation law until after the 2010 congressional elections.

WASHINGTON — Pension funds may be attracted to Build America Bonds but should be careful to diversify instead of only investing in their own state’s or city’s BABs, a New York City-based private-equity director said at a conference here Thursday.

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers yesterday easily approved a bill that would extend funding for highways and other surface transportation by three months, after some controversy, as well as a measure to extend funding for airports for the same period of time.

House Transportation Committee chairman James L. Oberstar plans to bring a three-month extension of the current transportation funding law to the House for a vote today and insisted in an interview Monday that he will not support any further extensions in lieu of a new multi-year bill.

The Senate last week approved a fiscal 2010 transportation and housing appropriations bill that included more than $1 billion each for rail projects and discretionary grants. Now the Senate and House, which passed its bill in July, must meet to resolve their differences over a national infrastructure bank, high-speed rail, and community development block grants.

WASHINGTON — The House Transportation Committee is expected to vote next week on a bill to extend the current transportation authorization law before it expires at the end of the month, but still needs to bridge the large gap between its own timeline and the Senate’s before the extension can move forward.

So many state and local governments are in fierce competition for $1.5 billion of discretionary grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation that it may be impossible for most of them to receive funding.

The Senate is likely to decide this week whether it will join the House in approving funds that could be used to establish a national infrastructure bank and pay for high-speed rail projects.