Related Items Full Coverage: White House Releases New Budget

By David Safford
LEGI-SLATE News Service
Monday, Feb. 2, 1998

The Clinton administration on Monday proposed to increase transportation spending to a record $43.3 billion in its proposed fiscal year 1999 budget, but its highway and transit spending levels fell far short of what some congressional leaders are contemplating.

Although the $22.6 billion in budget authority for the Federal Highway Administration, which builds and maintains 955,550 miles of highways and bridges, is an increase over last year's $22.4 billion, it is way below the proposed $28.5 billion envisioned for next year by Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, in his own legislation [H.R. 2400].

And the $4.8 billion earmarked for the Federal Transit Administration by the administration is dwarfed by Shuster's proposed $5.9 billion for transit spending.

Moreover, the administration's funding levels would generally remain flat over the next five years, while Shuster's numbers would ramp up to $32 billion for highways and $6.4 billion for transit.

These huge differences will be hammered out in what is certain to be a contentious debate later this year when Congress resumes consideration of a replacement for the massive Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), which expired last fall. ISTEA governs spending for the construction and maintenance of highways, bridges and transit systems -- and a projected budget surplus now has transportation mavens in Congress salivating in anticipation.

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater asserted Monday that President Clinton favors increasing spending on the nation's transportation infrastructure, but pointed out that the president has said that any budgetary surplus should be applied to Social Security.

Instead, the administration is seeking to establish a budgetary tool that it is calling the "Transportation Fund for America," to help capture new revenue streams.

The "fund" would include all of the Transportation Department's highway, highway safety, transit and air transportation programs, and would total $34.8 billion.

What it would really do is enable new revenue sources to be spent, regardless of any discretionary spending caps imposed by the congressional budget resolution. But DOT officials were quick to point out that only new revenue sources -- such as a new airport user fee or a new fuel tax -- would be eligible to be spent, while surplus revenue from existing sources would still be subject to the spending caps.

Under current law, Congress passes a budget resolution that sets discretionary spending limits for all portions of the federal budget. Congress then may enact any level below those caps, but may not exceed them.

Slater did not offer any specific proposals for new revenue streams that could benefit the nation's transportation infrastructure, but he hinted that new airport and airline user fees could be forthcoming in the administration's pending reauthorization proposal for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Highway safety programs fared well in the administration's budget request, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's budget increasing by 22 percent to $406 million in budget authority. It would emphasize the enactment of tougher laws against drunken driving, and expanding the proper use of seatbelts and child safety seats.

The administration request also included $100 million for a "welfare-to- work" program to help welfare recipients reach the new jobs that they have to take under welfare reform.

With the FAA's reauthorization pending, and the administration's proposal coming "soon," according to Slater, aviation is another major transportation issue that Congress will have to address this year.

The administration requested a total of $9.75 billion in budget authority for the FAA, an increase of $640 million. This includes a $1.7 billion earmark for the Airport Improvement Fund, which gives grants to airports to build capital-intensive modernization projects. Last year, the president's budget request would have slashed the AIP to $1 billion from $1.46 billion, but Congress instead voted to increase it to the current $1.7 billion.

Slater once again emphasized that aviation safety would fly first-class in the president's budget, with the FAA's safety programs increasing by 18 percent to almost $1 billion. Its operation budget would increase by 6 percent to $5.6 billion, which would provide funds for 185 new air traffic controllers, 150 new maintenance technicians and 45 more safety inspectors.

Civil aviation security, meanwhile, would be doubled to $284 million, including $100 million to provide airports with explosive detecting machines and hardened cargo containers for jets.

On rail systems, Slater rejected allegations by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that the administration's proposal would short-change Amtrak.

Instead, it would provide Amtrak with $621 million in operating funds, above and beyond the $2.2 billion tax rebate for capital expenses that Congress had previously earmarked for the financially ailing passenger railroad, Slater said.

"Amtrak over the next five years will, number one, have more money than it has had in any five-year period in its history, and secondly, if you look at capital investment resources, it will have more at its disposal than it has had in the past 18 years," he said.

Budget authority for the Federal Railroad Administration, meanwhile, would increase to $747 million, up from $727 million.

In other areas, the Coast Guard total budget authority would increase slightly to $4.08 billion from $3.99 billion, with Slater emphasizing that its drug interdiction effort would increase by nearly 9 percent to $437 million.

In the Maritime Administration, the president's budget would propose $500 million for the Title XI loan guarantee program to maintain the U.S. shipbuilding industry.