Infrastructure

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.

To keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent in 2015, Congress would need to eliminate highway and mass transit spending from the fund, raise taxes on motor fuels by about 10 cents/gallon or transfer about $15 billion from the general fund, a Congressional Budget Office official told lawmakers Tuesday.

The Obama administration said on Monday that the president will veto the fiscal 2013 appropriations bill for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development pending in the House if it is enacted in its current form because of cuts to bond-related and other programs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has suspended consideration of a $5.5 billion loan request for a high-speed rail project from Las Vegas to Southern California.

The American Association of Airport Executives is urging Congress members to permanently eliminate the alternative minimum tax penalty on airport-issued private activity bonds.

Increasing U.S. infrastructure development through creative funding models may reignite economic growth, according to a report by McKinsey & Co.'s Global Institute.

State debt issuance has remained below average levels even though governments have large infrastructure needs and less ability to pay for projects through pay-as-you-go financing, Standard & Poor's said in a report.

Toll revenue from the I-495 express lanes in Northern Virginia increased 64.6% from the first to second quarters of this year, according to Transurban Group, the Australian infrastructure firm that operates the lanes.

Republican leaders on the House Transportation Committee said Tuesday that they intend to reauthorize a rail bill this year and want the legislation to take into consideration innovative financing methods such as public-private partnerships and federal loans.

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday about the role that innovative financing tools, such as tax-increment financing, federal loans and public-private partnerships, can play in funding intercity passenger rail projects.