At the end of a prior post, I noted that the authors of the current Criteria ought to explain why the ‘or assets’ was omitted from the conclusion of the Background section. Or, more exactly in the context of an apparently smoking gun, to provide an alternative explanation to the obvious one, which is that the omission arbitrarily makes otherwise eligible non-federal cost shares in federally involved projects ineligible for WIFIA financing, and that’s the result they wanted.

Well, it’s only fair that the authors be given a chance to explain their side. Below is an email sent yesterday to the OMB contact noted in the Criteria’s Federal Register publication, cc’d to relevant published contacts at GAO and CBO. Naturally, I’m not expecting any reply, but if there is one, I’ll post that too.