House Committee Approves Economic Stimulus Infrastructure Funding- Clarifies “Use or Lose” Rules for Highway Funds

 The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved the portion of the economic stimulus legislation which falls within its jurisdiction, including infrastructure funding for various federal programs. The transportation related portion of the bill includes: $30 billion for highways and bridges, $9 billion for transit ($6 billion of which is for bus and equipment purchase), $1.1 billion for AMTRAK, $3 billion for the Airport Improvement Program, $150 million Coast Guard funding to repair or remove bridges on navigable waterways. Separate committees are dealing with other portions of the bill which is expected to be brought up for a vote of the full house on Tuesday, January 27, 2009.

The Appropriations committee amended the rules that apply to the use of the Federal-aid highway program funds and transit fixed guideway infrastructure grants by changing deadlines and clarifying definitions. As approved by the committee, states are required to obligate 50 percent of their apportionment within 180 days (originally set at 120 days). States would lose 50 percent of the funds not obligated in the first 180 days. These lost funds would be redistributed to states that had obligated their funds (50 percent of their apportionment) within the 180 day window. States would be further required to obligate the second 50 percent of their apportionment by August 1, 2010. Funds not obligated by that date would be redistributed to states that had fully obligated their state apportionment. These redistributed funds would have to be obligated by September 30, 2010. As originally proposed the term obligated was defined as meaning award of contract. The committee amended the definition of obligated to reflect its current meaning that obligation occurs when FHWA or FTA approves the funds for a specific project. The highway funds will be apportioned to states according to the SAFETEA-LU formula but the distribution within the state is changed. The bill gives approximately 70 percent of each states apportionment directly to the DOT, 25 percent will go for projects approved through the local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and 5 percent will be used for enhancement projects.