Infra Insight Blog

March 10, 2025 Update (Policy Rescission)

This afternoon (March 10, 2025), Secretary Duffy rescinded policy memoranda issued by the Federal Highway Administration during the Biden administration. The now rescinded memoranda each bore the name “Policy on Using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Resources to Build a Better America”—the first was issued on December 16, 2021 and the second on February 23, 2023. The 2021 memorandum, in particular, attracted significant attention throughout the industry when it stated that federal transportation funding “should be used to ...

February 26, 2025 Update

As discussed in our February 4 and 10, 2025, updates, U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan issued on February 3, 2025, a TRO prohibiting the Trump Administration “from implementing, giving effect to, or reinstating under a different name OMB memorandum M-25-13 freezing all federal financial assistance under open awards.”  On February 25, 2025, Judge AliKhan granted a preliminary injunction, ordering as follows:

• Enjoining the Trump Administration “from implementing, giving effect to, or reinstating under a different name the unilateral ...

On January 14, 2025, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a new final rule to end its longstanding waiver of Buy America requirements for “manufactured products” used in Federal-aid highway projects.

By way of background, FHWA’s Buy America statute was enacted in 1983 and required FHWA to ensure that all federally funded projects use only steel, iron, and manufactured products that are produced in the United States.  However, at the time, FHWA determined that it would be in the public interest to waive the Buy America requirements for manufactured products ... 

Late last Friday on November 5^th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA, which President Biden intends to sign on Monday, November 15^th. Much of the focus of the bill has been on the unprecedented increase in federal spending to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges, airports, seaports and transit systems. However, there are several provisions of the infrastructure bill that expand, and hopefully will make more transparent, the TIFIA credit assistance program. A low-cost ...

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 ...

As part of its effort to meet MAP-21’s legislative requirement to develop standard public-private partnership transaction model contracts for the most popular types of public-private partnerships, the Federal Highway Administration held a listening session with representatives from the transportation industry at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington D.C. on January 16.  Representatives from state departments of transportation, general contractors, trade associations, legal advisors and others were in attendance, and solicited to provide FHWA with the ...