Department of Transportation (DOT): FY2018 Appropriations

Summary

In 2017, the Trump Administration proposed a $75 billion budget for the Department of Transportation (DOT) for FY2018: $16.4 billion in discretionary funding and $58.7 billion in mandatory funding. That is approximately $2 billion less than was provided for FY2017. The budget request reflected the Administration’s call for significant cuts in funding for transit and rail programs.

The DOT appropriations bill funds federal programs covering aviation, highways and highway safety, public transit, intercity rail, maritime safety, pipelines, and related activities. Federal highway, transit, and rail programs were reauthorized in fall 2015, and their future funding authorizations were somewhat increased. There is general agreement that more funding is needed for transportation infrastructure, but Congress has not been able to agree on a source that could provide the additional funding. The federal excise tax on motor fuel, which is the primary funding source for federal highway and transit programs, has not been increased in over 20 years, and does not raise enough revenue to support even the current level of spending. To address this shortfall, Congress periodically transfers money from the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund to provide sufficient funding for the programs.

The annual appropriations for DOT are combined with those for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill. The House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 3353, the THUD FY2018 appropriations bill, in which Division A is FY2018 appropriations for DOT. The committee recommended $77.5 billion in new budget authority for DOT, 0.5% ($400 million) more than the comparable figure in FY2017 and roughly 3% ($2.4 billion) more than the Administration requested.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations has reported S. 1655, its FY2018 THUD bill, in which Division A is DOT appropriations. The Senate committee recommended $78.6 billion in new budget authority, 2% ($1.6 billion) more than the comparable FY2017 amount and 4.7% ($3.5 billion) more than the Administration requested.

Notable differences between the House and Senate committee bills include funding for the TIGER grant program (the House committee recommended no funding; the Senate committee recommended $550 million) and for new transit projects (beyond projects with existing grant agreements, the House committee recommended $400 million for Joint Public Transportation and Intercity Passenger Rail Projects, while the Senate committee recommended $768 million for new projects in the New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity programs).

With inflation forecast at 1.7% for FY2017 and 1.9% for FY2018, the House bill would result in a slight decrease in real DOT funding, while the Senate bill would result in roughly level funding, compared to FY2017.