Infrastructure

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.

Congress should establish a national infrastructure bank and offset the appropriation for it with revenue from a one-time repatriation tax holiday, the Brookings Institution urged in a report released Thursday.

The Federal Transit Administration on Wednesday published a policy guidance document about the evaluation criteria and rating process for transit projects seeking funding under the New Starts and Small Starts grant programs.

Two House members have announced that they are developing a bipartisan congressional caucus focused on infrastructure and the growing use of public-private partnerships.

A senior democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has introduced a bill that would reauthorize a popular federal transportation grant program and set aside a portion of the program's funds for small and medium sized cities.

A transportation and housing appropriations bill was pulled from consideration on the House of Representatives floor Wednesday.

The National Association of Water Companies is urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to change the remedial actions that must be taken when bonds no longer meet private activity bond restrictions, claiming the current ones deter or burden public-private partnerships.

President Obama described a pro-growth tax reform and jobs package during a speech in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Tuesday, but many of the municipal bond-related measures proposed were ones he unveiled earlier.

Three leaders of Senate committees that oversee transportation are calling for colleagues to work together to address the Highway Trust Fund shortfall that is expected to occur after the current funding law expires on Sept. 30, 2014.

Congress should consider eliminating tax exemption and privatizing infrastructure to subject it to property taxes in order to broaden the tax base, a director from the right-leaning think tank, Cato Institute, said this week.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said his office is trying to make sure that money authorized for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program is being quickly loaned out for projects, though experts said the process could be improved.

Kentucky is selling $207.7 million of Garvees to partially fund its $1.3 billion bridge project known as the "Downtown Crossing" because it traverses Louisville.