This week, the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for transportation cleared the first hurdle in solidifying federal transportation funding for fiscal year 2025, which begins October 1, 2024.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
The House Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Subcommittee marked up its FY 2025 appropriations bill on Thursday, ultimately approving it. For the U.S. Department of Transportation, the package provides $107 billion in total budgetary resources on the discretionary side of the federal budget subject to the annual appropriations process, with $25.4 billion in budget authority and $81.5 billion in obligation limitation for USDOT’s trust fund programs.
Outside of discretionary funds, this FY 2025 measure honors dollars previously authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for Highway Trust Fund (HTF) programs and programs receiving advance appropriations from the General Fund.
The House THUD bill, however, does not include the administration’s proposal to move $800 million from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act or TIFIA for the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) and Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity or (RAISE) discretionary grants.
The bill also does not include a legislative fix to August Redistribution, where states are asked to take on an oversize share of their annual HTF funding late in the federal fiscal year to ensure that dollars originally provided to non-formula programs do not expire. USDOT estimates that $8.7 billion will be available this year—the highest redistribution on record.
Below are highlights of the House FY2025 THUD Appropriations bill:
- Office of the Secretary
- $0 for RAISE and Mega (aside from IIJA advance appropriations)
- $11M for Build America Bureau (General Fund, or GF)
- $423M for Essential Air Service subsidies
- Federal Highway Administration
- $61.3B in obligation limitation (HTF)
- $1.5B in highway earmarks (GF)
- Repurposing of 10+ year old earmarks as Surface Transportation Block Grant Program dollars if less than 10 percent has been obligated, to be used within 25 miles of original funding designation
- Prohibits use of funds for the Federal Highway Administration’s greenhouse gas performance measure rule
- Federal Transit Administration
- $14.3B in obligation limitation (HTF)
- $116M in transit earmarks (GF)
- $754M in Capital Investment Grants
- Federal Railroad Administration
- $1B for Amtrak Northeast Corridor (GF)
- $1.1B for Amtrak National Network (GF)
- $299M for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (GF)
- $0 for Federal-State Intercity Passenger Rail Partnership grants (aside from IIJA advance appropriations)
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- $1.3B in total funding (HTF and GF)
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- $909M in total funding (all HTF)
- Federal Aviation Administration
- $13.6B for operations (Airport and Airway Trust Fund and GF)
- $3.5B for facilities and equipment (GF)
- $4 billion for Airport Improvement Program
The bill awaits full House appropriations committee approval, and the Senate THUD subcommittee is expected to offer its proposal in July.
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