Transportation Cuts Included in Proposed FY 2011 Funding Bill – More Potentially to Come

The House Republican leadership continues to work with its rank and file members to develop a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through the remainder of FY 2011. The federal government is currently operating on a continuing resolution that expires March 4 because the last Congress did not pass any of the 12 full-year appropriations measures for the current federal fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Last week the House Appropriations Committee released spending caps that would apply to non-security discretionary spending that were intended to cut $74 billion from the Administration’s budget request for the year. House conservatives and Tea Party affiliated members, who pledged during their campaigns last fall to cut up to $100 billion, balked at the proposed caps and insisted on larger cuts. The original proposal called for cuts of up to 17 percent for housing and transportation programs. When the Appropriations committee released its proposed cuts to implement this 17 percent reduction the transportation targets were: $1 billion high-speed rail, $224 million for Amtrak, and $234 million FAA's Next Gen program. Additional cuts to meet a target of $100 billion from the President's original FY 2011 budget request will be necessary but have not yet been identified. Since highway program operates under a different set of budget rules any cuts.