On June 5 the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Appropriations Subcommittee (THUD) approved its FY2019 appropriations bill including funding for transportation infrastructure development.

 

The bill provides $71.4 billion in discretionary spending for DOT, Housing & Urban Development, and other agencies.  Funding for the entire bill is $1.1 billion above FY2018 enacted levels. The bill will go to the full Senate Appropriations Committee on June 8.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is issuing a final rule describing new, experimental procedures to encourage increased project management flexibility, more innovation in project funding, improved efficiency, timely project implementation, and new project revenue streams for public transportation capital projects. A primary goal of this final rule is to address impediments to the greater use of public-private partnerships and private investment in public transportation capital projects. FTA anticipates using the lessons learned from these experimental procedures to develop more effective approaches to including private participation and investment in project planning, project development, finance, design, construction, maintenance, and operations.

 

The final rule’s effective date is June 29, 2018.  The final rule is here.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the availability of $25.8 million in grant funds to support comprehensive planning associated with new fixed guideway and core capacity improvement projects.  Applications are due July 23, 2018.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney expressed misgivings about several transportation provisions included the House version of the FY 2019 Transportation HUD (THUD) Appropriations bill passed last week in subcommittee.

The Department of the Treasury is steadily making progress on writing guidance for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and have announced a tentative release schedule: June/July for the passthrough deduction, late summer/early fall for the new limitations on interest expense, and December for the big international provisions (e.g. GILTI and BEAT).

 

In the meantime, the Committee on Ways and Means is contemplating a second round of tax cuts, or Tax Reform 2.0 as they like to call it. They are aiming to make permanent the new individual provisions as well as full expensing for businesses.