AASHTO Journal, 7 March 2014
On Tuesday, President Obama released his plan for a four-year surface transportation reauthorization as part of his fiscal year 2015 budget.
That four-year, $302 billion surface transportation reauthorization measure would supplement existing Highway Trust Fund revenue with $150 billion from revenue generated from “pro-growth corporate tax reform.”
The President’s plan calls for a new Transportation Trust Fund that would include a Highway Account, a Mass Transit Account, a Rail Account, and a Multimodal Account. The accounts for highways and transit would continue to receive user-generated revenue such as the gas tax and would also be supplemented with General Fund transfers that are offset by changes to the corporate tax code. The Rail and Multimodal Accounts would be funded through General Fund transfers.
The reauthorization proposal by Obama would follow MAP-21 programmatic structures for the most part, while also creating several new programs under FHWA, including: a Critical Immediate Investments Program (part of Obama’s “Fix it First” initiative, focusing on improving existing transportation assets and cutting down on structurally deficient bridges), a Freight Program (which aims to cut down on freight bottlenecks and improve efficiency in moving goods), and a Fixing and Accelerating Surface Transportation program (a discretionary program that would reward innovative solutions to transportation challenges).
Obama’s FY 2015 budget calls for $91 billion in funding for the U.S. Department of Transportation. That number is about $18 billion above current funding levels.
“President Obama has offered the kind of aggressive transportation budget our country needs – one that replenishes the Highway Trust Fund today while also helping ensure the country has a safe, efficient transportation system for tomorrow,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement. “These funds will do everything from helping communities tackle their transportation to-do lists to improving access to ladders of opportunity. And we will do everything at the Department of Transportation to make this budget a reality, including sending a bill to Congress to support it.”
The plan calls for $48.56 billion for the Federal Highway Administration (a 19 percent increase over FY 2014), $17.65 billion for the Federal Transit Administration (a 63 percent increase), $851 million for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (up 4 percent), $669 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (a 14 percent increase), about $5 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration (a 210 percent increase), and $15.4 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration (a 2 percent decrease from the current year).
That budget also calls for an increase in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant funding, from the current $600 million in FY 2014 to $1.25 billion in FY 2015. Finally, the measure would also allocate $10 billion for an initial investment in an infrastructure bank for transportation, water, and energy infrastructure projects.
Obama’s full FY 2015 budget is available here. A summary of Obama’s USDOT budget is available here.