Audrey Dutton

As a U.S. Treasury Department bond program intended to help housing finance agencies nears its halfway point, results are lagging behind expectations, Standard & Poor’s warned in a report issued Tuesday.

Demand for federal high-speed rail funds has once again exceeded supply, as the Federal Railroad Administration confirmed this week that 23 states flooded it with a$137 million of applications for proposed projects.

The global airline industry is expected to post a large profit this year and see a significant increase in passenger traffic, an airline trade group announced yesterday.

WASHINGTON — State and local groups are bringing their concerns to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s upcoming TIGER II grants — $600 million to be distributed to highways, bridges, transit, freight and passenger rail, and ports — with ports requesting at least one-quarter of the money.

WASHINGTON — Despite their expectations that the worst could be over for state finances, three groups warned yesterday that budget gaps, revenue shortfalls, and spending constraints are likely to continue this fiscal year and next.

WASHINGTON - States are headed for another two years of financial distress, according to a fiscal survey of states released this morning by the National Association of State Budget Officers and National Governors Association.

The Senate is expected to vote next week on a resolution by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to disapprove of greenhouse-gas regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act.

WASHINGTON — The House was poised late Thursday to consider an amendment to the tax-extenders package that would slightly alter the distribution of nearly $1 billion to states for transportation projects.

A group of senators led by Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., were poised late yesterday to introduce legislation that would provide public transit systems across the country with $2 billion of emergency operating funds to help ease the strain on their budgets.

Eleven Northeast states are asking the Federal Railroad Administration to cover $15 million of an $18.8 million study they hope will help improve and expand high-speed rail service in their corridor.

WASHINGTON — Congressional committees have set a July 4 target date for the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill to be signed into law, but lawmakers must clear a few obstacles including their differences over a bond-related provision before the legislation can be finalized.

WASHINGTON — Moody’s Investors Service has hired Walter Winrow to head its infrastructure finance group, replacing Tom Keller, who is now a senior managing director at the rating agency.

Transportation stakeholders are opposed to a provision in a draft climate-change bill introduced in the Senate that would generate more revenue based on emissions from the sector than would be re-invested in infrastructure or transportation projects.

WASHINGTON — State and local officials yesterday urged members of a House Ways and Means Committee panel to create and capitalize a national infrastructure bank, but neither they nor the lawmakers could agree on how to finance or structure the bank.

WASHINGTON — Energy and climate change legislation unveiled yesterday in the Senate would create a $3 billion tax-credit bond program for vehicles powered by natural gas, allow private-activity bond financing for advanced nuclear power facilities, expand a nuclear loan guarantee program, and provide $2 billion of competitive grants for transportation projects.

WASHINGTON — Congressional appropriators will be hard-pressed to provide more funding for high-speed rail for fiscal 2011 unless there is clear evidence that the $10.5 billion lawmakers approved for the sector has been used by state and local governments, a congressional staffer said yesterday at a rail industry meeting here.

The House Ways and Means Committee’s select revenue measures panel will hold a hearing Thursday on proposals to create an infrastructure bank.

Airport executives are accusing airlines of being hypocritical, claiming they are arguing against airports increasing passenger facility charges while collecting increased revenue from fees for baggage and other amenities.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Transit Administration has launched a $775 million grant program to help local and state governments finance capital projects involving buses and bus facilities. The allocations will be announced in September.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., soon plans to introduce legislation that would remove the cap on clean renewable energy bonds, following the transition of CREBs to a direct-pay system where issuers receive a 70% subsidy from the federal government to help with interest paid to bond holders.