Pending Legislation
FY'11 Budget and Appropriations

Status  

Despite earlier predictions that Congress would make little or no progress before the August recess on the annual federal agency funding bills, both the House and Senate appropriations committees have acted on a number of the bills.  The DOT Appropriations bill has made particular progress with the full House and the full Senate Appropriations Committee approving their respective versions of an FY'11 bill.  The bill will not come to the Senate floor for final passage until September.  A conference to resolve the differences in the two bills will occur after Senate passage. 

However, it does not seem likely that the DOT bill or any of the FY'11 funding bills will be completed by the October 1 start of the new fiscal year.  Therefore, the programs will be funded under a Continuing Resolution (CR) which generally funds programs at their current-year level.  CRs usually do not include project earmarks.  The hope would be to complete the bills, possibly as part of a multi-bill Omnibus appropriation, during the Lame Duck session.  If that is not possible, federal programs may have to be funded under a CR into early 2011.

US DOT Appropriations

Below is information about the House, Senate (Committee only) and current FY'10 funding levels for key DOT programs. 

Program

Current FY'10 Funding

House FY'11

Senate Appropriations Comte FY'11

Federal-aid Highways

$41.1B

$45.2B

$41.8B

Livable Communities Initiative

$0

$500M ($300M from the transit account and $200M from the highway account - see note below)

$0 (although the bill contains a $200M planning program for livability)

FTA Total

$10.7B

$11.3B (contingent on additional authorization)

$10.7B

FTA New Starts/Small Starts

$2B

$2B

$2B

FTA Formula & Bus

$8.3B

$8.9B (contingent on additional authorization)

$8.4B

FRA High Speed Rail

$2.5B

$1.4B

$1B

FRA Positive Train Control

$50M

$75M

$150M

Amtrak Capital/Debt

$1B

$1.2B

$1.4B

Amtrak Operating

$563M

$563M

$563M

FAA AIP

$3.5B

$3.5B

$3.5B

TIGER III

$600M

$400M

$800M

The higher obligation limits for both the highway and transit programs in the House-passed bill are not feasible under existing budget authority.  Additional authorizing legislation (such as SAFETEA-LU reauthorization) must be passed to provide sufficient contract authority to support the higher House levels, therefore it is unlikely these levels will be included in the final version of the bill. 

Neither the House nor the Senate agreed to fund the Administration's budget request for $4B for a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund (NIIFF). 

A House floor amendment offered by Rep. DeFazio (D-OR) that was agreed to would prohibit the transfer of $200M in federal highway contract authority to a new discretionary Livable Communities program unless separate authorizing legislation is passed.

Several amendments to cut funding for various programs and earmarks, particularly Amtrak, were defeated on the House floor. 

Administration  

House  

Senate  

Conference