Department of Transportation Budget FY2012 (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Nov. 10, 2011 |
| Report Number |
R41650 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
David Randall Peterman, Analyst in Transportation Policy |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
President Obama submitted his requested budget for the Department of Transportation (DOT) for FY2012 to Congress on Monday, February 14, 2011. The President requested $129 billion in total budget authority. This was an increase of $50 billion (63%) over the $79 billion requested for FY2011, and of $52 billion (68%) over the $77 billion in budget resources provided by Congress in FY2010.
The sizeable increase in the FY2012 request compared to previous years was almost entirely due to the request for a one-time $50 billion "jump start" appropriation for surface transportation programs on top of the DOT base request level of $78 billion. The Administration described this one-time additional request as a front-loading of the increased funding proposed for the six-year reauthorization of surface transportation programs (though the up-front funding request also includes $3.35 billion in funding for aviation), in order to stimulate productive investment and job growth.
The budget request was complex to compare with previous years' funding because it requested funding for DOT programs for FY2012 as if those programs had been restructured along the lines of the Administration's proposal for reauthorizing surface transportation programs for the next six years. However, aside from the $50 billion up-front appropriation requested as part of the reauthorization request, the overall DOT request was around 2% over the FY2010-enacted new funding, but 9% over the FY2011-enacted new funding, which was not finalized until several months after the request was submitted.
The reauthorization-related changes include renaming the Highway Trust Fund as the Transportation Trust Fund, adding intercity rail and new transit construction programs to the programs financed from the Trust Fund, and increasing overall revenues to the Fund (though the source of the additional revenues is not specified).
Congress had not enacted an FY2012 DOT appropriations act by the beginning of the 2012 fiscal year. FY2012 DOT funding is being provided through a continuing resolution at FY2011 levels. That continuing resolution (P.L. 112-36) will expire on November 19, 2011.
The Senate passed the FY2012 DOT appropriations act on November 1, 2011, as Division C of a so-called "minibus" (as opposed to "omnibus") appropriations bill, an amended version of H.R. 2112, the Department of Agriculture appropriations bill, which now includes two other appropriations bill, the DOT (and Housing and Urban Development) bill and the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill. The Senate bill would provide $73.0 billion in new funding for DOT (plus $1.9 billion in emergency funding for response to disasters), which is $3.9 billion (5.3%) less than the comparable amount provided in FY2010 but $385 million (less than 1%) more than the comparable amount provided in FY2011. Most of the reduction from the FY2010 level came from the high-speed and intercity passenger rail grant program, which was cut by $2.4 billion (the program received no funding in FY2011).
The House of Representatives has not introduced an FY2012 DOT appropriations bill. The House Appropriations subcommittee for DOT appropriations has approved an unnumbered draft bill; it has not been taken up by the full committee. Press reports indicate that the House and Senate have already begun to conference on the bill.
