DALLAS - The House Appropriations Committee's transportation panel approved a bill for fiscal 2016 that would essentially freeze next year's federal funding for highway and transit infrastructure at the previous year's $51 billion.
The spending measure, which now goes to the full committee for consideration, would provide $40.25 billion for highways and $10.7 billion for transit, down $161 million from fiscal 2015 and almost $20 billion less than President Obama requested for transportation in his proposed fiscal 2016 budget.
Implementing the spending plan would depend on passage of a new transportation bill to restore the spending authority that will end May 31 with the expiration of a 10-month extension approved by Congress last year. The appropriations measure does not address the expected $16 billion gap in fiscal 2016 between the motor fuels tax revenues dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund and the expected expenditures.
The proposed fiscal 2016 appropriations for the Transportation Department focus on core operations and critical transportation projects, said subcommittee chairman Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
"Though difficult decisions had to be made, I am confident our priorities will ensure the stability of these vital areas," he said.
Rep. David Price, D-N.C., the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, agreed to advance the measure but promised to offer amendments to increase transportation funding when it comes before the full committee.
"We can't just wring our hands and say, 'Oh, we're broke' because we're not broke," he said. "We have to figure out our way through this."
Price said House Democrats will try to increase the funding for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery competitive grant program from the $100 million allocated to it in the bill adopted by the subcommittee. TIGER grants will total $500 million in fiscal 2015.
"This $100 million for 2016 is just a placeholder," Price said. "It's clearly inadequate. We need to put a lot more money into that program."
President Obama asked for $1.25 billion of TIGER grants for fiscal 2016 as the first installment of a six-year, $7.5 billion program. The Transportation Department has distributed more than $4.5 billion of TIGER grants since the program began in 2009.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the proposal funding levels in the appropriations bill pending in the House are inadequate to meet the nation's infrastructure needs.
"We're not happy with the funding levels for sure," he told reporters at a Tuesday briefing. "It's very disappointing overall because the country is sucking wind."
President Obama's 2016 transportation proposal would provide $51.3 billion for highways and $18 billion for mass transit projects.
Six states have postponed almost $2 billion in road and transit projects planned for 2015 over the possibility that federal reimbursements will be delayed this summer due to low balances in the Highway Trust Fund and more are sure to follow, Foxx said.
Gasoline and diesel tax revenues in the HTF should be sufficient to keep reimbursements to states for qualified projects flowing for a month or so past the May 31 expiration of the extension to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) two-year highway bill, Foxx said.
That cushion could allow Congress to pass a short extension that wouldn't require lawmakers to find the $10 billion of new revenue or so needed to keep the HTF operating through the end of fiscal 2015 on Sept. 30, Foxx said.
A short grace period might give Congress a chance to agree on a long-term funding solution for transportation, he said.
"If it's an extension for extension's sake, that's not a good idea because it's going to continue to freeze and immobilize state departments of transportation that are trying to find resources to get projects done," Foxx said.
