FY'12 Budget and Appropriations

On November 18,Congress has passed the FY'12 DOT Appropriations bill, HR 2112, as part of a three-bill "minibus" and the President signed the bill. his "minibus" is the first FY'12 appropriations bill to be completed by Congress.

On December 13, Congress passed a nine-bill, $900B+ "megabus" FY'12 appropriations bill, HR 3671, to fund the remaining federal agencies through the fiscal year. HR 3671 includes funding for DHS/FEMA, the Corps of Engineers, DOE and DOD, and other infrastructure related programs.

H.R. 3671 provides a total of $5B for the Corps of Engineers in FY'12, which is higher than both the House and Senate proposed levels and exceeds even the Administration's request of $4.57B.

The final version of the FY'12 DOT appropriations bill is much closer to the higher funding levels included in the Senate version of the bill than to the House bill which included severe cuts of as much as 34% for highway and transit programs. Passage of these higher levels signals that House Republicans have abandoned their plan for significant funding reductions as proposed by the earlier FY'12 House Budget Resolution.

Highlights of the FY'12 DOT Appropriations bill include:

• A highway obligation ceiling of $39.14B, down from the FY'11 level of $41.1B, but in line with the authorized level included in the current SAFTEA-LU extension. The House bill had proposed a severe cut down to $27B. The appropriators did note that the higher level agreed to cannot be sustained in future years without new revenue.
• Inclusion of language restricting FTA from signing New Start FFGAs for projects with over a 60% federal share. This is less than the authorized level of 80%, but higher than the 50% maximum federal share included in the House bill. The 60% limit is the same that has been applied in previous appropriations bills.
• Retention of Senate bill language to fund $188M of Small Starts BRT projects from the FTA Bus and Bus Facilities program rather than from the New Starts program, thus crowding out other potential discretionary bus grants by the Administration. This effectively amounts to funding the New Starts/Small Starts program at $2.18B.
• No FTA TIGGER greenhouse gas or energy reduction funding.
• No High-Speed Rail funding- not even the very modest $100M included in the Senate bill.
• Over $1.36B in specific project allocations for 13 FTA New Start projects with FFGAs and $510M in unallocated funds for five light rail projects with pending or recommended FFGAs. Most of the FFGA projects were cut below the requested level, but FTA's requested amounts per project were particularly large for FY'12.
• Other than the New Start FFGA and BRT allocations, no highway or transit project earmarks.

The legislative text of the FY'12 DOT Appropriations bill (Division C) can be accessed here. beginning on page 225 of the document. The explanatory text of the joint statement of managers can be accessed here beginning on page 179 of the document.

• US DOT FY'12 Budget in Brief
• OMB Summary of US DOT FY'12 Budget Proposal
• FTA In Depth Analysis of FY'12 Budget Request
• FHWA In Depth Analysis of FY'12 Budget Request
• FRA In Depth Analysis of FY'12 Budget Request
• FTA FY'12 Annual Report on the New Start and Small Start Programs
• ARTBA Analysis of Administration's FY'12 Budget Request
• APTA Analysis of Administration's FY'12 Budget Request

• House Draft FY'12 DOT Appropriations Bill as Approved by the THUD Subcommittee Bill was never approved by the Full Committee
• House Draft FY'12 DOT Appropriations Committee Report as Approved by the THUD Subcommittee Committee Report was never approved by the Full Committee
• House DOT Appropriations Subcommittee Instructions FY'12 Programmatic Requests
• House Budget Committee FY'12 Budget Resolution Proposal

• Senate FY'12 DOT Appropriations Bill as Passed by the Full Committee - S.1596 Bill was never passed by the full Senate
• Senate FY'12 DOT Appropriations Committee Report

• Legislative Text of Final FY'12 DOT Approps Bill (Division C of HR 2112) DOT Section begins on page 225 of the document (pdf)
• Explanatory Text of the Joint Statement of Managers - FY'12 DOT Appropriations DOT Section begins on page 179 of the document (pdf)

• FTA FY'12 Notice of Funding Availability for Bus and Bus Facilities State of Good Repair, Bus Livability and Clean Fuels Grants
• FHWA FY'12 Solicitation for Discretionary Grants Applications are due by January 6, 2012