Getting rid of the middleman on transportation projects would make sense, said Colorado freshman Rep. Cory Gardner. 

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann's support for a bridge in her state was a topic of debate in The New York Times Wednesday.

Bachmann (R-Minn.) has been vocal in her opposition to federal spending. But she supports a bridge over the St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin that would require $700 million in federal money.

The Times asked a group of stakeholders in the project, which is also supported by Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), whether Bachmann's support was hypocritical considering her statements about construction projects in the past, especially in relation to the federal economic stimulus package of 2009.

Former Vice President and 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale said the project would be bad for the environment.

"In 1968, I joined my colleague and friend, Senator Gaylord Nelson, to sponsor the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act," Mondale, who is also a former senator from Minnesota, wrote in the newspaper. "This important legislation, that now protects more than 250 rivers in 40 states, is at risk of being negated by a small group of people in Minnesota and Wisconsin and their desire for a mammoth freeway bridge over the St. Croix River. In the nearly 43-year history of the program, there has never been a bridge or infrastructure project built over a Wild and Scenic River, and we should not start with this one."

No longer at the epicenter of a political fight over government spending in Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration got back to business regulating airlines Wednesday, announcing it was fining American Eagle Airlines for operating flights with incorrect weight and balance data.

About 4,000 FAA workers, mostly in research and design, were furloughed for nearly two weeks earlier this month when Congress could not agree on a funding bill for the agency. But after 13 days, lawmakers reached a deal on a bill that provides money for the FAA through Sept. 16.

On Wednesday, with its operations back to normal, the FAA proposed fining American Eagle $155,000 for eight flights to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport it said it observed arriving with heavier luggage than documents filed by airline employees specified. The FAA said the flights occurred between Dec. 28-29, 2010. 

Amtrak has filed a lawsuit against the company that owned the truck one of its trains collided with last month in Maine, the agency confirmed to The Hill Wednesday.

On July 11, train number 681 on Amtrak's Downeaster service hit a truck just after 11 a.m. about five miles from the New Hampshire border. The driver of the truck, Farmington, N.H., resident Peter Barnum, was killed in the accident.

The New Hampshire Union-Ledger reported Wednesday that the Amtrak suit against the Somerville, Mass., company that employed the driver, Triumvirate Environmental, alleges the deceased driver of the truck ignored warnings the train was approaching the intersection where the accident occurred.

“Barnum operated the tractor-trailer combination around the lowered crossing gates, despite the flashing lights, the audible warnings and the sounding of a horn from an approaching Amtrak train,” the newspaper reported the Amtrak lawsuit says.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Republicans are referring to the Essential Air Service program as 'Air Rockefeller.'

A woman at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport was stung by a scorpion during her trip to Phoenix.

A train derailed outside of New York's Penn Station, causing delays all day.

A poll showed Americans are keeping their cars longer to deal with the struggling U.S. economy.

Transportation advocates and congressional staffers are concerned that the federal gas tax could become the next confrontational issue.

Saying that he could avoid another shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, Democratic senators called Tuesday for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to appoint negotiators to discuss a long-term bill to fund the beleaguered agency.

In a letter to Boehner Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Maria Cantwell (Wash.) said Boehner and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) should show they want to avert another shutdown by beginning negotiations with the Senate.

"Public statements from you and Chairman John Mica say that you are 'willing to use every tool at your disposal' to negotiate a final FAA bill, yet one tool you have so far been unwilling to use is the normal legislative process," they wrote. "More than 120 days ago, a bipartisan group of Senators was appointed to the conference committee between the Senate and House FAA bills.  These Senators are eager to negotiate in earnest, but their House counterparts have not been named more than 4 months after the House passed their FAA bill."

The measure would take back pay funds from the Aviation Trust Fund that was at the center of the shutdown.

Ron Bloom helped craft new mileage standards for vehicles and played a major role in the auto industry bailout.