Infrastructure

An $8.2 billion water infrastructure bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives with almost unanimous support Wednesday in the first major legislation considered in Congress after the recent 16-day federal government shutdown.

Constraints on local and state governments’ ability to fund infrastructure projects provide an opportunity for Chinese investors to provide capital, goods, and services.

New head of state highway officials group seeks national economic stability through sustainable federal transportation funding.

U.S. transportation sectors are in the doldrums with little increase in activity seen in 2013, Fitch says in new report

States can benefit from investing pension funds in infrastructure, experts said, though there were some concerns from state treasurers.

Congress is not honoring its Build America Bond promises to state and local governments, even as state and local governments are pledged to make payments to their investors and to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure critical to the future economy, jobs, and competitiveness of the country.

American Airlines proposed merger with US Airways Group stands to impact all airports but several US Airways large hubs are most at risk for change, Wells Fargo Securities LLC says.

House Transportation Committee leaders unveiled Wednesday a water infrastructure funding bill that would explore the possibilities of a new tax-exempt bond program and encourage public-private partnerships.

Moody's Investors Service expects an increase in toll roads and toll-supported projects, the ratings agency said in a report.

Reforms to the tax-exemption of municipal bonds should be "careful and deliberative, particularly in how they treat previously-issued debt," a report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said.

U.S. transportation secretary Anthony Foxx on Thursday announced that 52 transportation projects in 37 states will receive a total of about $474 million from the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, has introduced a bill that would expand leasing for offshore oil and gas drilling and allow the Treasury Department to use the revenue to issue bonds, the proceeds of which would eventually go into the highway trust fund and state revolving loan funds.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Jo White's annual salary is $165,300, far below the base compensation of any of the top-paid, full-time officials of 21 self-regulatory, industry, government, and other municipal securities-related groups, most of which the SEC either oversees or have members the commission regulates or protects.

Evidence suggests that declining per capita driving rates in recent years cannot be dismissed as a temporary byproduct of the Great Recession, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund found in a study released Thursday.

Congress should permanently reinstate a Build America Bond program with a 28% subsidy rate to encourage state and local governments to invest in infrastructure projects, Brookings Institution recommended in a report this week.

Miami-Dade County is preparing the first bonds for a $1 billion capital improvement program at PortMiami to prepare for larger ships to arrive through the Panama Canal.

The Virginia Department of Transportation and the Elizabeth River tunnels' private partner are asking the Virginia Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's ruling that planned tolls for the project and provisions of the state's transportation P3 law are unconstitutional.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has named a bipartisan group of 11 people to a new local and regional transportation funding task force.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is urging Congress to take action on several issues, including transporation funding, tax-exempt financing of water infrastructure, the federal deficit and online sales taxes.

Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market received a $10 million federal TIGER grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for freight rail improvements.