By Ron Thaniel
January 17, 2011

The House Republicans, who gained the majority in last November’s election, approved on January 5 a provision in the rules for the new Congress that abolished the requirement that annual appropriations funding for highway and transit programs meet levels set in the federal surface transportation authorizing law. This action eliminates funding firewalls, established under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), and exposes the highway and transit programs to cuts during the annual appropriations process. Although the difference between the authorized level and appropriated level can not be used for other federal programs, it does allow the Highway Trust Fund balance to build up, which, in turn, could be used to hide other federal spending at a time when the federal government is focused on reducing the national deficit.

Advocates for the rule change say the provision is intended to prevent the federal government from spending more on highway and transit projects than the Highway Trust Fund collects.

Opposed by The United States Conference of Mayors, the change would inject uncertainty into the planning and construction of transportation projects that frequently take years to complete and, as Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran wrote in his letter to the new House Leadership, “transportation projects that are critical to tomorrow’s mobility needs and economies of cities and metropolitan areas.”

Road and transit projects are multiyear infrastructure projects. These projects require predictable funding which, since TEA-21, has been guaranteed through the authorization process, and on an annual basis, appropriators honoring commitments made by authorizers. “Such a fundamental change in our nation’s approach to transit and highway funding should only be considered as part of the pending reauthorization of the federal surface transportation,” wrote Cochran.