AASHTO Journal, 30 September 2016
Congress succeeded in passing a continuing resolution Sept. 28 that headed off a potential government shutdown and funds transportation programs and most federal agencies at prior-year levels through Dec. 9.
The CR passage, first in the Senate and then in the House, meant lawmakers could leave as scheduled at month’s end without having a funding crisis when the new federal budget year begins Oct. 1.
But it also meant state departments of transportation and transit agencies around the country now face a delay of at least two months in receiving the scheduled Oct. 1 funding increases Congress already authorized and paid for through last year’s Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.
Those agencies will continue receiving federal funds at the fiscal 2016 level, rather than collect the higher amounts they are due in fiscal 2017, until Congress acts on at least the surface transportation part of the budget.
Lawmakers are not scheduled to return to the Capitol until after the November elections, when they could negotiate an “omnibus” budget measure to fund the entire government or a series of smaller appropriations bills. That would free up the 2017 increases for DOTs and transit agencies.
However, reports persist that some members of Congress want to avoid negotiating an overall budget accord in a lame-duck session, and would prefer to seek another short-term extension to push funding of at least some federal departments into the 2017 calendar year. Under such a scenario, transportation programs could be left waiting months longer before they could tap the FAST Act’s annual increase for 2017.
Although Congress has often approved short-term CRs ahead of a budget-year deadline, this is the first time in several years that one has disrupted a scheduled increase in transportation program funding. After the two-year MAP-21 law covered the 2013 and 2014 budget years, Congress funded transportation through a series of short extensions until it passed the five-year FAST Act last December.
The FAST Act approved annual increases through 2020 and put money into the Highway Trust Fund to cover them, but any CR delays produce some uncertainty about when those scheduled increases will finally come through.
While lawmakers eventually passed the CR by solid margins, the Senate first rejected a proposed version that left out money to help Flint, Mich., repair its lead-polluted drinking water system.
Only after House leaders agreed to put Flint aid into the separate water projects bill did the Senate pass its government funding measure. The Senate had passed its version of a Water Resources Development Act earlier in September, which included drinking water aid for Flint and other cities.
Later on Sept. 28, the House passed its own WRDA bill with a different Flint aid package and then approved the CR, which President Obama signed into law Sept. 29.
Lawmakers from the two chambers will need to negotiate a final WRDA bill in the lame-duck session.