AGC-Backed Provision Restricting Transportation Department Pilot Program Remains
With Senate action already finished, the House Appropriations Committee this week approved the FY 2017 transportation appropriations bill. Both versions of the legislation maintain the funding levels set in the 2015 FAST Act, with highway funding set at $43.266 billion (up 2 percent from last year) and transit formula funding set at $9.734 billion (up 4.3 percent). Both bills include a key, AGC-backed provision that sets restrictions on the use of a U.S. DOT pilot program that enables state or local grant recipients to utilize local or geographical, economic-based, and veterans hiring preferences on federal-aid highway and federal transit projects. While there is still work to be done, inclusion of this provision puts us in a great position to continue the certification requirements in 2017. Both bills also include the truck driver hours of service provision that would retain use of the truck driver 34-hour “restart” without setting specific times when drivers must rest. There was an attempt in the House Committee to strip the restart language from the bill, but AGC was successful in defeating that amendment.
The House bill sets TIGER grant funding at $450 million, down 10 percent from last year’s $500 million and below the Senate level of $525 million. The House bill includes transit capital grants at $2.5 billion, higher than the FAST Act levels and an increase over the Senate’s level of $2.33 billion. The Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants remain at the FY 2016 level of $3.35 billion in both the House and Senate bills. House consideration of the bill will occur following the Memorial Day recess.
For more information, please contact Brian Deery at deeryb@agc.org or (703) 837-5319.