Rail funding approach wins bipartisan support

The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate remain far apart on reauthorizing a highway/transit funding bill. The Senate is backing a two-year, $109 billion bill to maintain spending at its present level; the House is holding out for $230 billion spread out over six years, a significant cut in federal support.

But there is accord on another approach to funding new transit construction: Both houses of Congress want to expand to $1 billion a year the government loan program authorized by the Transportation Infrastructure and Innovative Finance Act (TIFIA). The Wall Street Journal, in its weekend edition, quoted Jason Furman, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, as saying the Obama Administration viewed the program as a step toward the national infrastructure bank that it has proposed.

A TXIFIA loan is unexpected to pay for about a third of the estimated $1.7 billion cost of a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority project to construct an 8.5-mile light rail transit line to Los Angeles International Airport.