Infrastructure

Public transit advocates push for $100 billion of federal funding for mass transit over six years in the new surface transportation spending law.

President Obama will ask Congress in his fiscal 2015 budget proposal for $2.5 billion in transit grants for 26 projects in 16 states.

Democrats and Republicans could find common ground on business tax reform and infrastructure investment, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday.

A higher cap for federally allocated tax-exempt private activity bonds could make state transportation P3 projects more attractive to investors.

President's Obama $3.9 trillion fiscal 2015 budget, released Tuesday, proposed capping the value of the tax exemption for municipal bond interest at 28%, which market participants complain would amount to an unprecedented tax on municipal bonds.

President Obama plans during the next two months to send Congress draft legislation for a four-year, $302 billion reauthorization of the surface transportation funding program, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters Tuesday during a briefing on the fiscal 2015 budget.

Annual spending on roads and bridges is up to $50 billion short of what is needed to maintain and improve them, U.S. DOT said in report on transportation infrastructure

Proposals to pump up the sagging Highway Trust Fund without raising the federal gasoline tax offer a solution to the highway funding impasse.

Rep. Bill Shuster, chairman of key House transportation committee, wants to study two new plans to bolster the sagging Highway Trust Fund

President Obama proposed a four-year, $302 billion surface transportation infrastructure construction and repair program.

The first segment of a new $5.7 billion rail line extension of the Washington Metrorail system to Dulles International Airport needs more work before it can handle passengers, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said Monday.

Federal Railroad Administration gave California's bullet train authority another 90 days to come up with $180 million of state match for federal spending.

Congress must show political courage in expanding federal transportation funding as the Highway Trust Fund dwindles, DOT Secretary Foxx said Thursday.

The benefits of stimulus spending on transportation infrastructure during economic downturns outweigh the initial cost, the Transportation Research Board says.

Conservative financial structure of grant anticipation revenue bonds will buffer their credit ratings if federal highway funds drop in fiscal 2015, Standard & Poor's predicts.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the new chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has recently voiced some ideas that would favor the municipal bond market, such as extending bond-related and other expiring tax provisions and reinstating Build America Bonds. But the Oregon Democrat's past actions, such as sponsoring legislation that would favor tax-credit over tax-exempt bonds, have posed threats to the muni market.

A gradual economic recovery helped the credits of municipal bond issuers in 2013, Fitch Ratings said Wednesday, with the agency reporting that the past year witnessed fewer downgrades and more upgrades than 2012.

A Senate committee was warned Wednesday that the looming insolvency of the federal Highway Trust Fund could shut down transportation projects across the county.

Inadequate funding for transportation infrastructure in one of the biggest issues facing the United States, the Transportation Research Board said Tuesday.

A bipartisan proposal for national infrastructure bank funded by $50 billion of 100-year taxable bonds is a bad idea, according to the Economic Policy Institute.