The Senate is likely to decide this week whether it will join the House in approving funds that could be used to establish a national infrastructure bank and pay for high-speed rail projects.
The Senate began debating the fiscal 2010 transportation and housing appropriations bill on Thursday. The House approved its own appropriations measure in July by a vote of 256 to 168.
Once the Senate votes on its bill, the differences between the two measures will need to be resolved by a conference committee consisting of members from both chambers before a final bill is sent to the president for approval.
Both bills are a departure from the fiscal 2010 budget proposals for transportation and housing that were made by the Obama administration earlier this year, although the White House said in a statement last week that it “strongly supports” the version of the bill that was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee July 30.
The administration proposed moving responsibility for the lion’s share of federal highway funding — $36.1 billion — from the ailing highway trust fund and into the general fund, making it subject to annual appropriations. The request drew virtually unanimous dissent from key members of Congress. Neither the House nor Senate bills would change the funding structure as the president requested.
The Senate bill would provide $1.2 billion for inter-city and high-speed rail projects, compared with up to $4 billion for high-speed rail in the House bill.
The White House said in its statement last week that it hopes the final bill will support a national infrastructure bank instead of only providing national infrastructure grants and credit. The House version would allow the transportation secretary to use $2 billion of high-speed rail funds to capitalize a national infrastructure bank if one is created by Congress. The Senate version does not contain any funds for such a bank.
The Senate bill would, however, provide $1.1 billion of competitive grants to state and local governments for surface transportation infrastructure. The Senate committee said the proposal reflects the intense competition for $1.5 billion of similar grants that were created by the stimulus law.
The Senate measure also would provide $500 million for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, a popular low-interest credit and loan program for state, local, and private entities that is often used with private-activity bonds.
The Senate and House bills both would provide states with the ability to make spending obligations for up to $41.1 billion of federal-aid highway grants during the fiscal year.
In addition, the Senate bill would provide $3.515 billion to airports and numerous discretionary grants for individual projects such as runway construction or, in the case of Oakland County International Airport, replacement of a terminal building. The House bill would provide the same amount of federal grants to airports, but does not include discretionary grants for those projects.
For housing, the Senate would provide nearly $4 billion of community development block grants through Sept. 30, 2012, while the House bill would provide $4.6 billion for CDBGs. The grants help to fund capital projects in low- or medium-income or economically stressed areas, and are used in conjunction with bonds.
The White House said in its statement that it appreciates the support, but it also wants Congress to reform the CDBG program, “particularly modernizing the outdated funding formula to target funds to economically distressed communities more effectively.”
