Sweeping water bill would reach into transportation with TIFIA tweaks

The House of Representatives is poised to vote this week on a sweeping water infrastructure bill that would send billions to flood-control and coastal resiliency projects and revamp a popular transportation loan program to allow untapped dollars to be sent to states. The "Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024" would advance 21 new projects undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and greenlight 200 feasibility studies. It would also tap unobligated balances from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program for the Surface Transportation Block Grant program where states will be able to use them for infrastructure projects.

The people have voted. Now what? Follow The Bond Buyer's coverage of 2024 developments after Election Day.

Connecticut is poised to ramp up transportation borrowing in the coming years. "What we want to do is take advantage of the federal resources that are available to make some long-term, important investments in our transportation infrastructure," said Representative Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, co-chair of the Connecticut House Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee. She said red tape and staffing problems have put Connecticut's Department of Transportation behind its borrowing targets in recent years, though the state had capacity for more bonding.

From politics to disclosure to funding, the changing climate challenges muni issuers. Learn more in our Climate Spotlight 2024 package.

Palomar Health, a two-hospital system in San Diego’s north suburbs that was downgraded by Moody’s Ratings to junk in October, reported a $165 million operating loss for the fiscal year ended June 30. Palomar is the largest public health care district in California, with over $1 billion of revenues reported for fiscal 2023, and over 24,000 admissions, Moody’s wrote. Both Fitch Ratings and Moody’s downgraded the system’s ratings to junk this year.

Watch what the municipal bond industry’s innovators and influencers are saying in our Leaders series of video interviews. Check out our lineup of future live interviews and archived conversations.

Check out the photos from last week’s Bond Buyer Deal of the Year award ceremony.

Save the date! The Bond Buyer's National Outlook event returns to New York City on Feb. 6, 2025.

Municipal bonds were little changed to a touch weaker in spots Monday as investors shifted their focus to the larger new-issue slate ahead while U.S. Treasuries saw losses along the curve and equities closed the session in the red.

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