Infrastructure

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.

North Dakota and other rural states led the Reason Foundation's performance rankings of state highway systems based on 2009 data, while more populous states including New Jersey, California and New York found themselves toward the bottom of the ratings.

Anthony Foxx was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of Transportation Tuesday morning in a private ceremony at the department's headquarters.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has released a draft report showing 10 candidate and 10 conceptual transportation projects that could move forward as public-private partnerships in the commonwealth.

A bipartisan, bicameral foursome reintroduced legislation that would authorize $50 billion of tax-credit bonds over six years.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said farewell Thursday and gave praise to his department after serving there for over four years.

Virginia is continuing its push to be the leading public-private partnership state, opening a bustling travel corridor to private sector involvement a day after a major infrastructure firm announced it has moved its U.S. headquarters to the commonwealth.

The Senate voted a unanimous 100-0 Thursday to confirm Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as the new U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

Public-private partnership, a financing model that has started to spread across the U.S., may face some challenges as Congress debates limits on the federal role in infrastructure, according to Simon Santiago, leader of Nossaman LLP's east coast infrastructure practice.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Alliance will focus on a potentially trend-setting challenge to a prominent Virginia public-private partnership at the group's annual conference July 24-26.

Former President Bill Clinton strongly urged Washington Tuesday to pass a national infrastructure bank bill and encouraged state and local governments to embrace more public-private partnerships.

Australian infrastructure giant Transurban will concede the 8.8-mile Pocahontas Parkway toll road in southeast Virginia back to its lenders because the road failed to live up to its revenue projections.