Page 23 - ATR 2 2013

dodging the budgetary bullet

Transportation funding expands, cuts to military and airports

by kelly cargill crow

Managing Editor

Having sufficiently kicked the
federal budget can down the road,
President Obama released his budget in
April, two months late, and just weeks
after the House passed a six-month,
$984 billion spending bill.
Congress’s continuing resolution,
passed just one week before a govern-
ment shutdown would have ensued,
cuts funding from last year’s arduously
won transportation law by $555 million
for highways, $117 million for public
transportation and $48.5 million for
highway safety. And delivers no money
for new safety programs the law created.
In contrast to the House’s budget,
President Obama’s budget provides a
total of $76.7 billion in discretionary
and mandatory budgetary resources for
the Department of Transportation, an
increase of 5.5 percent above the 2012
enacted level.
Coming as a surprise to many who
were concerned about the sweeping
budget cuts, MAP-21 is fully funded in
Obama’s budget and even calls for a 25
percent increase from current fund-
ing levels when the reauthorization bill
expires in 2015.
Funding, the report said, will come
primarily from “ramping down over- ing transportation needs; something address the nation’s growing backlog of
seas military operations” and “lowering the President’s budget proposal brushes preservation and maintenance needs,”
funding for the airport grants program over with the mention of a National said Bud Wright, AASHTO’s executive
in part by eliminating guaranteed fund- Infrastructure Bank to bring together director.
ing for large hub airports.” public and private capital for “impor- The American Trucking
Organizations like the American tant” infrastructure projects. Associations (ATA) takes an even harder
Association of State Highway and “We remain supportive of propos- line against President Obama’s budget
Transportation Officials (AASHTO) had als like President Obama’s that would proposal.
hoped the White House would try to increase investment in transportation
create a long-term solution for fund- infrastructure, especially those that  30

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