On Wednesday, the House passed (212-206) a nearly $1.1 trillion continuing resolution (CR) funding the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year (until Sept. 30, 2011). The measure would also extend for nine months -- from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 -- authorization for federal highway, mass transit, and aviation programs.

The  National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (otherwise known as the deficit reduction commission) failed to garner the necessary 14 votes today to approve its proposed recommendations and forward them on for Congressional consideration.

The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (otherwise known as the deficit reduction commission) today released the commission’s proposed report. While December 1, 2010 was the deadline for a final report as spelled out in President Obama’s Executive Order that established the Commission, the panel's 18 members decided Tuesday that they would give themselves until Friday to review the document and decide whether to support it.

One week after AGC's Steve Sandherr sat down with him, Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard made a compelling case for why conservatives should support highway construction and a $.10 to $.15 increase in the gas tax.

The Federal Railroad Administration announced the award of $2.482 billion in High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail grants. Fifty-four projects in 23 states and several multi-state regions are included in the grant awards. These awards are in addition to the $8 billion in grants for projects approved earlier this year through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Projects in 31 states and the District of Columbia were funded under ARRA awards.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced nearly $600 million in TIGER II discretionary grant awards for major infrastructure projects ranging from highways and bridges to transit, rail and ports. In total, forty-two capital construction projects and 33 planning projects in 40 states will receive funding from this program.  According to the US DOT, roughly 29 percent of TIGER II money was awarded for road projects, 26 percent for transit, 20 percent for rail projects, 16 percent for ports, four percent for bicycle and pedestrian projects and five percent for planning projects. A list of the projects can be viewed here.  The Tiger grant program was first started as part of the ARRA stimulus legislation which included $1.5 billion in funding. Over $60 billion was requested in the Tiger I program from the $1.5 billion made available in ARRA. The $600 million in funding for the Tiger II grants was included in the US DOT FY 2010 appropriation legislation. There were over 1000 applications requesting $19 billion of Tiger II funding.  Selection for award was based on an evaluation by DOT judging the likelihood of the project to address sustainability and economic competitiveness. The planning grant portion of the Tiger II awards were selected in conjunction with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) judging the ability of the projects integrate transportation, housing and urban development.  Joining DOT and HUD in the evaluation of the planning grant applications were the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As part of Livability initiative DOT signed a memorandum of understanding with HUD and EPA to cooperate on future integration of transportation and housing planning. 

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) announced this week a proposal to convert the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel from a cents-per-gallon basis to a percentage basis, a mechanism that could raise revenues to pay for greater highway and transit investment if the price of fuel rises in future years. AASHTO proposed an 8.4 percent tax on a gallon of gas instead of the current 18.4-cent gas tax. The tax on a gallon of diesel would be 10.6 percent instead of the current 24.4 cents.AASHTO estimates that converting the present fuel-tax rates to a percentage could generate $43 billion more during the expected 2011-16 period that would be covered in a new transportation authorization measure. The estimate is based on anticipated increasing gas and diesel prices -- an average increase of slightly more than $7 billion per year. The additional revenue would enable the reauthorization bill to fund $330 billion worth of projects compared to the $287 billion funding level in SAFETEA-LU.ASSHTO's Executive Director John Horsley said in releasing the proposal, "The most significant barrier to the passage of a long-term transportation authorization bill continues to be the question of how to pay for it. Over the next two months, we hope to start a dialogue on transportation funding options that have a chance of bipartisan support to either grow the level of transportation funding to the level we're shooting for in a new bill, or at least to sustain it at current levels."AFTEA-LU expired on September 30, 2009, and the highway and transit programs have been operating under short term extensions ever since. The current extension expires on December 31, 2010 so Congress must take action in a lame duck session or program funding will be shut down.

According to a report released by University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, the nation will not be able to continue to compete economically with the rest of the world without new ways to fund America's ailing transportation system. The report is co-authored by former Transportation secretaries Sam Skinner and Norman Mineta and is the result of a three-day conference in September 2009 that included about 80 transportation experts. The report, "Well Within Reach: America's New Transportation Agenda," highlights 10 recommendations on how to improve America's roads and bridges. The group estimated that an additional $134 billion to $262 billion must be spent per year through 2035 to rebuild and improve roads, rail systems and air transportation.

AGC responded to a new report from the Treasury Department detailing underinvestment in transportation, noting that failure to repair aging roads and bridges and expand transportation capacity is costing tens of thousands of jobs.