Dear CAGTC Members,
On July 8, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) approved their fiscal year 2021 THUD bill. This bill was drafted to align with the House-passed reauthorization package, so many changes to the appropriations bill will likely be necessary to make it consistent with the final reauthorization law/extension. The bill text can be found here and the Subcommittee’s summary/press release here. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to hold their markup of the proposal sometime next week.
Key funding provisions
- Total funding: $107.2 billion in total budgetary resources for USDOT.
- BUILD grants: $1 billion for FY21, the same funding level as in FY20. The bill includes several changes to the program’s funding distribution and set-asides:
- Planning set-aside: increases the set-aside from $15 million to $20 million and adds an additional set-aside of $20 million for planning grants in areas of persistent poverty.
- State maximum: consistent with previous appropriation bills, a single state may not receive more than 10 percent of the total available funding. However, the FY21 bill does not count port infrastructure investments (including inland port infrastructure and land ports of entry) toward that $100 million limit.
- Urban/rural: revises the definition for urban projects, projects in areas with a population over 250,000 (up from 200,000 in FY20) will be considered urban. The FY20 appropriations bill required funds be split evenly between rural and urban projects. For FY21, 60 percent of funding would go toward urban projects and 40 percent to rural. As in past years, the maximum federal share for rural projects is 100 percent and 80 percent for urban projects. Urban grants can be $5 million-$25 million in size (no change compared to FY20), and rural grants $1 million-$25 million (up from $15 in FY20).
- Obligation timeframe: extends the deadline for the obligation of funds from three years to six years.
- CRISI grants: $500 million, an increase of $175 million compared to FY20. Includes a $60 million set-aside for highway-rail grade crossing improvement projects, $90 million for new intercity passenger rail service routes, and $25 million for projects targeting trespassing.
- Port Infrastructure Development grants: $300 million, $75 million higher than last year. At least $275 million must go toward projects in coastal seaports or Great Lake ports.
- Additional Federal-aid Highway funding: $1 billion in additional highway programs funding from the General Fund, including:
- Railway-Highway Crossings (Section 130) Program: $50 million, same as FY20.
- Regional Infrastructure Accelerator Demonstration Program: $12 million, up from $5 million in FY20.
- Emergency designations: provides approximately $26 billion in emergency funding for USDOT programs. These appropriations are unlikely to pass as each individual emergency appropriation requires a three-fifth (60 votes) majority in the Senate and is subject to approval by the President. This section of the bill includes an additional:
- $3 billion for BUILD grants
- $5 billion for CRISI grants
- $1 billion for PIDP grants
As a reminder, the INFRA grant program is not subject to the annual appropriations process but instead uses Highway Trust Fund contract authority provided by surface transportation authorization legislation. However, President Trump’s annual budget requests for the past few years have recommended an additional $1 billion for INFRA provided through General Fund appropriations which would be part of a THUD appropriations bill. Thus far the House has chosen not to include those additional funds in their appropriations bills.
Thank you,
Cecile
Cecile Entleitner
Manager, Member Communications & Policy
Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1625 K Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
tradecorridors.org
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