Might a recent agreement to fund water projects pave the way for more transportation spending? That's what positive signals out of Washington seem to indicate. Just one small obstacle stands in the way: how to finance road and bridge projects.
"In a Congress bitterly divided over budget and health policy, some lawmakers are optimistic that infrastructure funding could offer a small patch of common ground," reports Kristina Peterson. "Even lawmakers with clashing ideas over the appropriate size of the federal government have agreed recently that it has a role to play in building and maintaining the nation's roads, bridges and ports."
The next phase of sequestration cuts, which are set to take effect in January, may provide the impetus for finding common ground. "A bipartisan agreement that more spending is needed on infrastructure projects might give both parties an incentive to ease the sequester cuts," writes Peterson.
How would the government fund such improvements as the Highway Trust Fund nears insolvency? That's were agreement breaks down.
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