Infra Insight Blog

On March 31, 2015, Congressman John K. Delaney (D-MD) spoke at the Washington Briefing of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBBTA) in Washington, DC. At the event, Congressman Delaney provided an update on a bipartisan bill he has sponsored known as The Infrastructure 2.0 Act to fund the federal highway program. The bill uses international corporate tax reform to provide a six-year funding source for the Highway Trust Fund. Specifically, the bill establishes a mandatory, one-time 8.75% tax on existing overseas profits accumulated by U.S. multi-national ...

Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx chaired a virtual town hall meeting, entitled Moving from Uncertainty to Long-Term Transportation Investment, on August 6, 2014.  The town hall was open to the general public, as well as business leaders, transportation advocates, and state and local government officials.  Secretary Foxx discussed the United States Department of Transportation’s (US DOT) vision for the future of transportation, as well as answered questions from attendees about transportation policy.

In his opening remarks, and throughout the question and answer ...

Congress passed a bill (HR 5021) to provide a short-term funding patch for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), just one day before the United States Department of Transportation was scheduled to begin slowing reimbursements to states for eligible highway, bridge, and mass transit projects.  A failure to act by Congress had the potential to slow-down or stop any number of transportation construction projects across the country in the midst of the construction season.

After volleying the bill back and forth between the chambers over the course of this week, Congress passed a final bill that ...

Before departing Washington, DC for the traditional August Congressional recess, Congressmen Mike Rogers (R-AL-3) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11) announced that they are forming the Congressional Caucus on Public-Private Partnerships, or the Congressional P3 Caucus.  In the press release announcing the caucus, Rogers says that he hopes the group will help raise awareness of infrastructure issues and examine public-private partnerships across the country.  Congressional caucuses are formed by Members seeking to work collectively on issues, usually with the goal of increasing ...

The fiscally conservative House majority continues to pursue reductions in federal spending, and federal transportation spending is part of the mix.  Further use of the general fund to supplement the Highway Trust Fund motor fuel taxes, as well as increases in fuel taxes, are opposed by the House majority.  Cuts could come in several forms, including cuts in Title 23 programs overall or cuts to specific programs.

Given the diminishing role of the Highway Trust Fund in funding future transportation investment, federal credit assistance under the TIFIA program needs to grow in ...