On February 17, 2012, the U.S. Senate failed to invoke cloture on a package of committee-approved amendments to Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), its proposed federal transportation reauthorization bill.  If approved, the package would have blocked further amendment to the bill.  Several senators offered non-germane amendments to MAP-21 last week, including topics such...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) issued a Notice of Funding Availability for the fourth round of the TIGER program on January 31, 2012.  The 2012 program will make available $500 million, including set-asides for rural areas and the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) credit assistance program.  U.S. DOT’s pre-application system opened February 13, and...

On February 14, 2012, Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives indicated it would split the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act (AEIJA) into three separate bills.  One bill would contain the core transportation provisions (H.R. 7), one bill would contain the energy production provisions (H.R. 3408), and the final bill would include additional finance provisions (H.R. 3813).  The...

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved the Highway Investment, Jobs Creation, and Economic Growth Act of 2012 by a vote of 17-6-1 during its markup session on February 7, 2012.  The Act would finance the highway, transit, safety, and research bills passed by various other Senate committees and will be combined with those bills to be voted on by the full Senate, perhaps as early as next week.  As...

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced that it will mark up its component of the federal transportation reauthorization bill tomorrow, February 7, at 2:00 pm CT.  Called the Highway Investment, Job Creation, and Economic Growth Act of 2012, the bill would provide the financing components of the highway, transit, safety, and research bills passed by various Senate committees since last November. ...

Three committees in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as one U.S. Senate committee approved bills related to transportation reauthorization this week. 

• As mentioned in a previous Policy Update, the House Natural Resources Committee approved three bills to expand domestic energy production on February 1.  More specifically, the bills would allow greater offshore energy production, open portions of...

On February 1, Governor Quinn delivered his 2012 State of the State address, outlining his administration's efforts to spur economic growth and improve infrastructure. 

The governor applauded the growth of automotive manufacturing jobs at Ford and Chrysler plants in Chicago and Belvidere, respectively.  He stated that Illinois exports are on the rise, having jumped 30 percent in 2011. Building...

The U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee will mark up H.R. 3864, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Financing Act of 2012 on February 3, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. EST.  The Committee released the text of the bill late on February 1.  The bill would provide funding for the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s federal transportation reauthorization bill, described...