The Federal Times reports that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said Wednesday the department has a backlog between $80 billion and $100 billion in high-priority infrastructure improvement projects that it cannot afford to fund.

The Journal of Commerce reports that Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, says he backed a Democratic jobs bill Monday after Majority Leader Harry Reid assured him the Senate will vote later in 2010 on a long-term surface transportation bill.

Voinovich was one of five Republicans who backed a jobs bill offered by Reid, D-Nev., which would also extend current federal transportation spending levels through the end of this year. Voinovich said that before casting his vote to help get the jobs bill past a filibuster, “Leader Reid gave me his commitment that he will bring the reauthorization of a multi-year surface transportation bill to the floor for a vote this year.”

Lawmakers in the Colorado House passed some exceptions Tuesday to the controversial late fees in last year’s FASTER bill. The changes would allow clerks a bit more discretion in waiving the fees, exempt commercial trailer owners if they can document they had idled that part of their fleet, and put a $10 maximum late fee on non-motorized vehicles 2,000 pounds or less.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a leading national research organization says Congress should get rid of fuel taxes and move toward a system that charges road users for the miles they travel. It is driven by the growing insolvency of the federal Highway Trust Fund and the inability of the gas tax to keep pace with inflation.

The Journal of Commerce reports that senators are expected within the next two weeks to introduce legislation to sustain surface transportation spending. One will extend the existing transportation program known as SAFETEA-LU through the end of calendar 2010. The second will transfer $20 billion from general revenue to the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent.

The Denver Post reports that lawmakers gutted a bill that would have allowed police to pull over unbuckled drivers and charge them higher fines, likely forfeiting $12 million in federal transportation dollars in the process.

As the Senate debates the merits of a Jobs Bill, a new report — Projects and Paychecks: a One-Year Report on State Transportation Successes under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — finds that more than 280,000 jobs were created and more than 12,250 transportation projects are underway as a result of the jobs bill signed into law one year ago.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that some Pueblo West board members would like more certainty about $3.5 million the county has promised the district for a roads project.

Three “scorched earth initiatives” on the Colorado ballot this fall would “bring Colorado state and local government construction activity to a halt,” political strategist Rick Reiter cautioned.

FasTracks’ federal funding picture came into sharper focus on Friday as the Federal Transit Administration announced it will provide the sought-after $304 million in loans toward the conversion of Denver Union Station and $120 million in grants to three rail corridors.