By a vote of 38 to 27, the Colorado House of Representatives voted on April 2 to approve HB 10-1387, which seeks to annually divert approximately $20 million ̶ $200 million over the coming decade ̶ away from the Highway User Tax Fund (HUTF), which pays for bridge and highway repairs, to the Department of Revenue for administering/issuing driver’s licenses and associated examinations, renewals, permits, and State identification cards.

The Senate gave final approval Wednesday morning to a bill known as the “HIRE Act” containing seven transportation provisions including an extension of authorization for federal highway and transit programs through Dec. 31 as well as providing $19.5 billion to the Highway Trust Fund. Today’s vote to concur with House amendments sends the legislation to President Barack Obama.

RTD’s sales tax revenue for January retreated slightly after two months of gains, even as Colorado’s statewide sales tax collections for January retail sales went up two percent.

Reuters reports that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Thursday that U.S. government could issue debt to help underpin infrastructure bank financing for priority highway, transit and other big-ticket projects. LaHood again ruled out a gas tax hike to boost construction upgrades, saying the Obama administration and Congress must shift away from traditional funding mechanisms.

The House of Representatives approved an amended job-creation bill this afternoon that would extend Highway Trust Fund authorization until Dec. 31, deposit $19.5 billion of general revenue into the Highway Trust Fund, restore this fiscal year’s highway funding to $42 billion from $30 billion, and offer additional federal support for states and localities that wish to issue Build America Bonds to finance infrastructure construction.

The Bond Buyer reports that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at a conference sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials that the Obama administration will unveil its principles for a new multi-year transportation bill within the next 90 days. He would not say if the principles will contain recommendations for a revenue source to pay for a multi-year program.

PBS reports that the transportation bill — the massive legislation authorizing and funding the country’s roads and mass-transit infrastructure (from highways to bus lanes to railways to bike lanes) — expires every six years. That, however, does not mean a new bill is passed every six-years. It’s Washington, D.C., after all.

If Sen. Jim Bunning had not balked at the end of his far-from-perfect game on the floor of the U.S. Senate, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the team of contractors out in the field on numerous federal-aid highway projects stood to lose an average of $1.76 million in reimbursement per workday.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Senate was tied in knots Monday as it tried to get around a single lawmaker’s objection to a spending bill. Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.) again blocked a $10 billion bill that would have extended unemployment benefits and other programs after halting its progress last week. And on Monday, the impact of his blockade started biting, with the expiration of benefits to 100,000 people and the suspension of 41 transportation projects across the country.

Following an emergency meeting today to discuss the impact of the current shutdown of federal highway and transit programs, state transportation officials called the action a bad situation that will only get worse. “If you do the math, we’re talking about more than $153 million a day in lost reimbursement payments for highway projects to the states,” said Larry L. “Butch” Brown, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “Congress has to move quickly to correct this by passing legislation and getting it signed into law.”