Dear CAGTC Members,
Today President Trump transmitted to Congress his budget request blueprint for Fiscal Year 18. The blueprint, titled “America First, A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again” focuses on discretionary spending and outlines how the Trump Administration will reprioritize this federal spending. Discretionary spending accounts for about a quarter of USDOT’s total resources. USDOT’s budget is covered on pages 35 & 36 of the budget blueprint: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/2018_blueprint.pdf. A comprehensive budget is expected from the Executive Branch in mid-May. Secretary Chao today issued a statement on the budget and quoted OMB Director Mulvaney in saying that some of the reductions have been made in an effort to “move money out of existing, inefficient programs and hold these funds for more efficient programs that will be included in the infrastructure package under development.” The Secretary’s full statement can be read here: https://www.transportation.gov/highlights/preparing-transportation-tomorrow.
Of significant importance to CAGTC, the TIGER program has been eliminated under the President’s FY18 budget. Because the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (referred to as the FASTLANE program by the Obama Administration) and freight formula program are authorized/funded through the Highway Trust Fund, they are not impacted by the budget blueprint. I have pasted below the relevant excerpt from the budget blueprint:
“Eliminates funding for the unauthorized TIGER discretionary grant program, which awards grants to projects that are generally eligible for funding under existing surface transportation formula programs, saving $499 million from the 2017 annualized CR level. Further, DOT’s Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects grant program, authorized by the FAST Act of 2015, supports larger highway and multimodal freight projects with demonstrable national or regional benefits. This grant program is authorized at an annual average of $900 million through 2020.”
The blueprint’s justification for eliminating the TIGER program is flawed. Competitive grant programs, such as TIGER and the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects grant program (FASTLANE), are critical tools for transportation projects that are difficult to fund through formula programs. Furthermore, TIGER and the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program are not interchangeable. The TIGER program is available to address a multitude of mobility issues of various sizes – including freight and mixed use infrastructure, while the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Project, or FASTLANE program, is aimed at investing in large-scale, freight-specific infrastructure improvements. Both programs fill a niche that traditional distributions, such as highway formulas, have difficulty addressing. Please find here an infographic that CAGTC developed last spring. It explains the differences between the two programs and why both are important.
Since it was first created in 2009, TIGER has become a popular program with both Republicans and Democrats. The program has faced hurdles before; in 2012, House appropriators did not include funding for the program in their Transportation, Housing and Urban Development package, but negotiated with the Senate to fund the bill at $500 million that year. While it is unlikely that Congress will terminate the program, it will be critical in coming months for us to defend TIGER and explain why it is different from the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program (FASTLANE). CAGTC will be developing additional education and advocacy communications for our members to use with elected officials. We will be sharing the materials soon.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you,
Elaine
Elaine Nessle
Executive Director
Coalition for America's Gateways & Trade Corridors
1444 Eye Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 828-9100
Mobile: (607) 368-5028
www.tradecorridors.org