ON THE HORIZON


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 theHouse passed a six- month, $984 billion spending bill. Congress’s continuing resolution, passed


just one week before a government 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 theHouse’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 funding levels when the reauthorization bill expires in 2015. Funding, the report said, will come


primarily from “ramping down overseas military operations” and “lowering funding for the airport grants program in part by eliminating guaranteed funding for large hub airports.” Organizations like the American


Association of StateHighway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) had hoped theWhiteHouse would try to create a long- term solution for funding transportation needs; something the President’s budget proposal brushes over with the mention of a National Infrastructure Bank to bring together public and private capital for “important” infrastructure projects. “We remain supportive of proposals


like President Obama’s that would increase ROADWISE |


investment in transportation infrastructure, especially those that address the nation’s growing backlog of preservation and maintenance needs,” said BudWright, AASHTO’s executive director. The American Trucking Associations (ATA)


takes an even harder line against President Obama’s budget proposal. “The backbone of our economy is the


asphalt, steel and concrete of our roads and bridges and proposals to fund those roads should be equally concrete,” BillGraves, ATA’s president and CEO said. “For five years, we’ve


ISSUE 3, 2013 | www.mttrucking.org


waited for President Obama to clearly state how we should pay for these critical needs and, I’m sad to say, we continue to get lip service about the importance of roads and bridges with no real roadmap to real funding solutions.” That’s just one example of why ATA’s


Graves believes theWhiteHouse must craft a longer-term and sustainable funding strategy to address the many diverse needs of theU.S. transportation industry. Included in the budget is a $50 billion


program to provide immediate transportation


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