Highway Finance: RABAâs Double-edged Sword (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
May 19, 2003 |
| Report Number |
RS21164 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
John W. Fischer, Resources, Science and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The debate over a possible reduction in federal highway program spending during FY2003 has
ended. Congress has chosen to overrule provisions of law that would have reduced the FY2003
spending level to $23.2 billion, and has instead settled on $31.8 billion, the same as the FY2002
level. In early 2002, it appeared that a major reduction in highway program spending was in the
offing. An Office of Management and Budget calculation in the President's budget indicated that
the RABA adjustment for FY2003 would be negative. The Administration and Congress were not
proposing a cutback. Rather a complex financing mechanism known as Revenue Aligned Budget
Authority (RABA) was proving the famous law of unintended consequences. Predictions made at
the time RABA was created by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century as amended
(TEA-21)( P.L. 105-178 & P.L. 105-206 ) saw it as an ever growing source of funding for the
highway program, even though RABA was created with the possibility of a downward adjustment.
RABA provided the highway program with almost $9 billion in additional financing during the years
FY2000 through FY2002. Congressional action in the 2nd Session of the 107th Congress precluded
this downward adjustment, at least in part, and the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003
( P.L. 108-7 ) guaranteed that funding would remain at the FY2002 level. This report will not be
updated.
