[Update: The extension has passed both the House and Senate.]
700 days since the expiration of the last federal transportation bill and seven short-term extensions later, Congress is poised to pass (drum roll please) another 6-month extension. Yesterday, the House unanimously approved the eighth extension of SAFETEA-LU, which maintains current transportation spending levels through March 2012. Despite Senator Tom Coburn’s determination to eliminate the transportation enhancements program (the main source of funds for pedestrian and cycling projects), observers think there are enough votes in the Senate to oppose his amendment and pass the extension as is.
(To make sure, you can e-mail your senator through Transportation For America’s website.)
Crisis Averted, for Now
Letting the surface transportation bill expire at the end of the month would have spelled disaster for the country and our region. According to analysis by the U.S. Department of Transportation, a lapse in the $51.5 billion in federal funding would put at risk more than 134,000 active road and bridge repair projects and 5,000 transit projects across the country.
| State | Est. Annual Jobs at Risk | Active Highway Projects | Active Transit Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| CT | 10,630 | 2,401 | 84 |
| NJ | 22,996 | 1,872 | 48 |
| NY | 53,227 | 6,863 | 87 |
USDOT also warned that an expiration of surface transportation funding would mean that state governments would stop receiving reimbursements for expenses incurred on highway projects or money already spent on transit projects. As a result, already cash-strapped states would find themselves with more financial exposure and risk.
Authorization vs. Appropriation
While the clean extension authorizes the same spending levels for highways and transit for the next six months, it does not necessarily change the total dollar amount the House will appropriate for transportation. Confused? In Washington D.C. authorization and appropriation are two very different things. Authorization essentially gives the government the authority to spend up to a given amount on a specified program. Appropriation is when the actual dollar amount is assigned to each program. In other words, authorization determines which funding buckets exist and how large they are, and appropriation is when the buckets are filled (or not).
So those keen to make deep cuts to transportation can still do so come March. As Tanya Snyder of Streetsblog Capitol Hill astutely notes:
Rumor has it that House Republicans are being told that the extension’s spending levels don’t change the appropriations levels the House is willing to approve, and that’s $27.7 billion for the year for highways and $5.2 billion for transit. So if the extension authorizes $19.8 billion for highways for the first six months and $4.2 billion for transit, that’s fine: It just means that for the whole second half of the year, highways would only get $7.9 billion and transit would only get $800 million. Those are deadly cuts, but it appears that transportation leaders are putting off that fight till later in order to pass an extension now.
Here’s a closer look at what the House Appropriations Committee’s 2012 budget, if approved, would do to transportation spending:
- Cut highway funding from $41 billion to $27 billion.
- Cut transit funding (excluding New Starts) from $8.3 billion to $5.3 billion.
- Cut New Starts from $1.6 billion to $1.55 billion and require that any new grant agreement include at least a 50% non-federal share.
- Eliminate funding for TIGER, high-speed rail, and TIGGER (transit energy efficiency grants).
- Prohibit any new RRIF (a loan program like TIFIA for rail projects) loans or loan guarantees. The MTA’s current capital program relies on a $3 billion RRIF loan which has not yet been awarded.
- Cut Amtrak capital funding from $922 million to $898 million.
- Cut Amtrak operating funding from $563 million to $227 million.
Another Extension?
By the time the 6-month surface transportation bill extension reaches the President’s desk, Congress will have moved onto other pressing issues such as the recommendations of the Debt Commission. While Rep. John Mica has introduced his 6-year, cut-heavy transportation bill proposal in the House, Senator Barbara Boxer has yet to introduce her 2-year transportation bill, which maintains current funding levels, in the Senate. The closer it gets to March 2012 without bills introduced in both chambers, the lower it falls on Congress’ priority list, and the more likely that the white whale of a long-term transportation bill will remain unattainable.
