House Appropriations Subcommittee Cuts Highway and Transit Funding

This afternoon, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) voted out their fiscal year 2012 funding bill which significantly slashes funding for Federal-aid highway and Federal Transit programs. AGC urged the subcommittee to refrain from making more cuts to construction accounts when considering the THUD bill. The bill is designed to use all the resources coming into the highway trust fund and the mass transit account. Itwould cut funding from $41.1 billion to $27.7 billion for highways and $8.3 billion to $5.2 billion for transit.  These funding levels reflect the levels provided in the House passed Budget Resolution, which sought to limit spending from the Highway Trust Fund to the revenue received from the gas tax. Chairman of the subcommittee Tom Latham (R-Iowa) was adamant in his support for additional funding for Highway Trust Fund programs in later iterations of the legislation if additional resources can be identified. However, he was bound to the funding levels set in the Budget Resolution. Ranking Member John Olver (D-Mass.) offered an amendment to restore the current funding levels.  The amendment failed on a party line vote. Chairman Latham, and other Republicans on the committee, expressed the need to pass a reauthorization bill and address the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund in the reauthorization.  It is not clear whether or not the THUD appropriations bill will move through the House of Representatives. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.