LegiStorm

Summary:

On February 2, 2015, the Obama Administration proposed a $93.7 billion budget for the Department of Transportation (DOT) for FY2016. That is about $22 billion (31%) more than was provided in FY2015. The budget request for DOT reflected the Administration’s call for significant increases in funding for highway, transit, and rail programs. Neither the surface transportation reauthorization legislation (H.R. 22) that the House and Senate are currently negotiating nor the DOT appropriations bill as passed by the House or reported out by the Senate Committee on Appropriations (H.R. 2577) would increase transportation funding on the scale requested by the Administration. The annual appropriations for DOT are combined with those for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill. The House has passed H.R. 2577, which would provide FY2016 appropriations for THUD. The House-passed version of H.R. 2577 would provide $70.6 billion for DOT, $1 billion less than DOT received in FY2015 (after rescissions are subtracted from the FY2015 total, the difference is reduced to $646 million) and $23 billion less than the Administration request. The House-passed bill cuts funding for Amtrak by $242 million (17%) from its FY2015 level, to $1.148 billion, less than half the amount requested by the Administration. The House Appropriations Committee marked up the bill one day after an Amtrak passenger train derailed in Philadelphia, which raised the profile of the cuts to Amtrak funding. The House-passed bill also includes significant cuts to the TIGER discretionary grant program and the transit New Starts program. For TIGER, the bill would provide $100 million, an 80% reduction from the $500 million provided in FY2015 and $1.15 billion below the Administration request. For New Starts, it would provide $1.9 billion, a 9% reduction from the $2.1 billion provided in FY2015 and $1.3 billion below the Administration request. These three programs account for most of the bill’s cut in transportation funding from the FY2015 level. The Senate Committee on Appropriations reported a version of H.R. 2577 providing $71.3 billion for DOT, a reduction of $368 million from the FY2015 level (after rescissions are subtracted from the FY2015 total, the difference is reduced to $17 million) and $22 billion less than the Administration request. The committee recommended funding the TIGER grant program and Amtrak at their FY2015 levels. It recommended a 25% ($535 million) cut to the New Starts transit grant program, the major change in the recommended FY2016 levels from FY2015 levels. On November 18, 2015, the Senate Committee on Appropriations released a substitute amendment to H.R. 2577 that would increase DOT discretionary funding by $690 million, reflecting the Balanced Budget Act of 2015 (which increased the amount of budget authority for FY2016). Specifically, the substitute amendment would change the following accounts:  Under the Office of the Secretary, the National Infrastructure Investment (TIGER) grant account would change from $500 million to $600 million.  The Federal Aviation Administration Facilities & Equipment account would change from $2.6 billion to $2.855 billion.  The Federal Transit Administration Capital Investment grant (New Starts) account would change from $1.585 billion to $1.896 billion.  The Maritime Administration account would change from $373 million to $397 million. The remainder of this report has not been updated to reflect the substitute amendment