A stopgap funding bill heading to President Trump's desk extends surface transportation funding to early December, giving lawmakers more time to craft a full five-year reauthorization but leaving some states and cities without an expected nearly $37 billion of federal support.
The measure could disrupt some transportation infrastructure projects, particularly public transit or passenger rail projects and those that rely on discretionary grants, road advocates warned.
State and local issuers should prepare for a projected 20% cut in federal public transit investment and an 83% drop in passenger-rail investment through Dec. 11, according to transportation groups.
The warnings are part of a larger lobbying effort to ensure that the next five-year surface reauthorization, which Congress is in the midst of crafting, includes the kind of hefty advance appropriations included in the current bill, the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The IIJA expires on Sept. 30.
The House Tuesday passed the continuing resolution to keep federal agencies funded through Dec. 11, avoiding the risk of a partial government shutdown after the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. The Senate passed the bill on Aug. 8.
That leaves out $36.8 billion of advance appropriations provided by the IIJA.
The loss "will immediately disrupt and delay ongoing planning, engineering, and construction of surface transportation projects across the nation and inject uncertainty into future state and local investment decisions," Paul Skoutelas, the president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association warned in a
More than 100 transportation, infrastructure, labor and business groups have called on congressional leaders to ensure that IIJA-level advance appropriation is maintained, said law firm and lobbyist Holland & Knight in an
"The size of the coalition" pushing for the continuation of advance appropriations "reflects how deeply these appropriations are embedded in long-term infrastructure planning," the law firm said.
Grant programs that are "critical to states and cities," such as the Mega Grant program, Capital Investment Grants, the Bridge Formula Program, and the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement and Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail programs "would face anywhere from a 50% to 100% reduction in funding from the levels provided under IIJA," the firm said.
"Based upon the volume of advocacy in the past month, discussions surrounding how to handle [IIJA's advance appropriations] expiration — and what to replace it with — are likely to play a prominent role in negotiations" over the full surface transportation bill, Holland & Knight said.
The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in May
The House Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for the revenue part of the bill, has yet to take up the measure. The relevant Senate committees haven't introduced any bills yet.
"Passing a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill before the end of this Congress remains a top priority for me and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee," House T&I Committee Chair Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., said in a statement after Tuesday's passage.
"However, today's House passage of the continuing resolution was important to prevent any lapse in federal surface transportation programs," Graves said. "I look forward to moving this bill through the legislative process and working with the Senate to complete a long-term bill that invests in America's roads, bridges, and other surface infrastructure, cuts red tape in the project process, and ensures that states have the certainty and flexibility to carry out the projects most critical to them."
The stopgap funding measure also temporarily blocks implementation of a controversial Office of Budget and Management proposal to overhaul federal grant and loan guidance. The proposal is
