Budget Office Sees Highway Fund Secure to 2013

September 1, 2010 (Journal of Commerce) Washington D.C. -- The Congressional Budget Office is drawing the attention of transportation policy experts with an upbeat estimate that the nation’s Highway Trust Fund should be able to cover its projected spending needs into fiscal 2013. Click here to read article.

Firm to pay $52.4m in Minn. bridge collapse

August 24, 2010 (The Boston Globe) MINNEAPOLIS -- After enduring countless surgeries and hours of court hearings, victims of the deadly 2007 Interstate 35W bridge collapse reached the end of their legal fight after an engineering firm agreed to pay $52.4 million to settle scores of lawsuits. Click here to read article.

URS Agrees to Pay $52.4M To Settle Claims From Minn. Bridge Collapse

August 23, 2010 (Engineering News-Record) MINNEAPOLIS -- For victims and survivors of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the legal odyssey ended Monday with the announcement that engineering giant URS Corp. agreed to pay $52.4 million to settle claims from the 2007 disaster that claimed 13 lives and injured 145.  Click here to read the article.

Voinovich Looks to Secure Jobs Before Retiring

July 27, 2010 (ideastream.com) - Ohio Republican Senator George Voinovich is pushing for quick reauthorization of the surface transportation bill that he says will create thousands of jobs for Ohioans. ideastream®'s Bill Rice reports, Voinovich hopes the bill can be passed before he leaves office in January.  Click here to read full story.

Obama Nixes Gas Hike, Fees

July 26, 2010 (The Bond Buyer) - The Obama administration is opposed to a gasoline tax increase or mileage fee to generate revenue for the next multi-year transportation bill, but would support a number of public and private options including bond-related financing, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Friday.  Click here to read full story.

LaHood Says No Fuel Tax Increase Needed for Transport

July 23, 2010 (The Journal of Commerce) -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a combination of current-level gas tax receipts, road and bridge tolling and President Obama’s proposed infrastructure fund could offer a way to fund a long-term federal infrastructure program without new taxes. Click here to read article.

House Appropriations Subcommittee Approves $4 Billion Increase in Highway Funding 

July 2, 2010 (AASHTO Journal) - Federal-aid highway projects would see a $4 billion funding boost for Fiscal Year 2011 under legislation passed Thursday by the House transportation appropriations subcommittee. Click here to read article.

VOINOVICH SOLICITS OBAMA TO HELP PASS HIGHWAY BILL

June 22, 2010 (The Columbus Dispatch) - Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, welcomed President Barack Obama to Ohio on Friday -- but had a small request. Click here to read article.

OBERSTAR POINTS TO ROAD PROBLEM:  A SHORTAGE OF FEDERAL GAS-TAX REVENUE

June 17, 2010 (MinnPost.com) - The problem is simple, says Rep. Jim Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation Committee: There simply isn't enough money coming in through the federal gas tax right now to meet the nation's current needs for road and bridge repairs. Click here to read article.

THE FEDERAL SURFACE TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM GETS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

March 25, 2010 (Innovation Newbriefs) - The HIRE Act (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, H.R. 2847, P.L 111-147), signed by the President on March 18, has placed the federal surface transportation program on a firm footing and taken the pressure off the lawmakers and the White House to come up with a more permanent solution — at least for a while. While efforts to develop a long-term transportation strategy are expected to continue for the remainder of this year, Congress and the White House are likely to take their time enacting a multi-year legislation. This is the near-unanimous judgment of informed congressional observers and Washington insiders whom we consulted over the last several days.  Click here to read article.

SENATE APPROVES JOBS BILL, HOUSE RESPONSE UNCLEAR

February 26, 2010 (Senate.gov) - The Senate this week passed its version of a jobs package (H.R. 2847) by a vote of 70 - 28. Thirteen Republicans joined Democrats to return the bill to the House, which passed its version of jobs legislation in December.  However, controversy over funding allocations has complicated plans to pass the legislation in the House.

The $15 billion Senate-passed bill includes an extension of surface transportation programs through the end of 2010, and would allow an additional transfer of $19 billion from the General Fund into the depleted Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Because the $19 billion is a transfer from the government's general fund into the HTF, it does not count towards the total stated "cost" of the bill. Without the $19 billion transfer, the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund will fall below the $4 billion threshold in May and completely run out of money in August.

The bill now goes to the House which will decide whether to pass the Senate version or go to conference to reconcile the bill with their $154 billion jobs package. Many House Democrats have raised concerns over the bill based on its smaller size, and members of both parties have voiced serious objections to the way the highway section of the bill was written. The formula in the Senate version would benefit highway projects in California, Illinois, Louisiana, and Washington by giving those states $532 million of the $932 million dedicated to the two highway programs in the bill. Twenty-two states would not receive any funding from the formula and the remaining states would receive far less than the four.

Due to the immediate concerns over the Senate bill, the House will not clear the package by the end of the week. Therefore, House and Senate leaders have put together a 30 day transportation extension to avoid a shut-down of the programs on March 1.  The short-term extension bill (H.R. 4691) will buy both chambers more time to iron out the details of H.R. 2847, while keeping highway funds flowing.

Watch for future key alerts as jobs legislation advances in Congress.

Federal Highway & Transit Programs Extended Through February 

December 30, 2009 (AASHTO Journal) – President Barack Obama signed into law last week a Department of Defense appropriations bill that includes an extension of highway and transit authorization through February -- the third short-term extension since the 2005 transportation law known as "SAFETEA-LU" expired Sept. 30.

The 72-day extension (contained in HR 3326) became Public Law 111-118 on Dec. 19 following Obama's signature and the Senate's vote of 88-10 earlier Dec. 19 to adopt the measure. This is the longest SAFETEA-LU extension to date. The first extension covered the month of October and the second extension was good for 48 days, expiring Dec. 18. Click here to read article

OBAMA TAKES AIM AT COSTLY U.S. DEFENSE CONTRACTS

March 4, 2009 (Reuters.com) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the U.S. government was paying too much for things it did not need and ordered a crackdown on spending he declared "plagued by massive cost overruns and outright fraud."

Click here to read article.

Driving Up the Cost For Public Works

February 14, 2009 (The Washington Post) - Design and engineering companies helping to build the nation's highways ran up millions of dollars in inappropriate charges at the expense of taxpayers, including bills for parties, luxury car leases and hefty paychecks for executives, according to auditors.

The bills were described by the firms as overhead costs but should not have been allowed, according to a Feb. 5 report by auditors in the Department of Transportation's inspector general's office. Click here to read article.

Texas Dot contracting more, at higher costs

February 1, 2009 (Austin American-Statesman) - As the state's largest user of contract services, the Texas Department of Transportation has embraced outsourcing more than any other state agency, putting almost three of every four dollars it spends in the pockets of private companies. In 2007, that amounted to about $6 billion, according to a 2009 Texas Sunset Advisory Commission report.

TxDOT has always hired out its road construction. But in recent years, it has steadily increased the number of private contractors it hires to do other work, such as road maintenance and repairs, and engineering and design work.  Click here to read article.

Obama unveils 21st Century New Deal

December 6, 2008 (Politico.com) - President-elect Barack Obama added sweep and meat to his economic agenda on Saturday, pledging the largest new investment in roads and bridges since President Dwight D. Eisenhower built the Interstate system in the late 1950s, and tying his key initiatives – education, energy, health care –back to jobs in a package that has the makings of a smaller and modern version of FDR's New Deal marriage of job creation with infrastructure upgrades. Click to read article.

For New Transportation Secretary, a Hard Road Ahead

November 25, 2009 (The Washington Post) - The next transportation secretary will walk into an agency that oversees an outdated air traffic control system; congested roads, rails and skies; crumbling highways and bridges; and a financing system teetering on collapse.  Click to read article.