CAGTC Members,
President Trump has released the text of his fiscal year 2018 (FY18) budget request, titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness.” It includes a first look at the potential infrastructure plan and calls for $200 billion in Federal outlays over 10 years to leverage $1 trillion in total infrastructure investments. The funds are for “a range of sectors,” including surface transportation, waterways, and ports as well as waste water, broadband and Federal facilities. The proposal includes a staggered released of the $200 billion in Federal funds. For FY18 specifically, the Administration requests $5 billion and ramps up its desired funding levels through 2021, in which it proposes the allocation of $50 billion. After 2021, the suggested levels begin decline, going back down to $5 billion per year in 2025 and 2026. The plan does not lay out exactly how the $1 trillion number will be reached, instead suggesting it “will be met with a combination of new federal funding, incentivized non-federal funding, and expedited projects.”
The Administration proposes that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) discretionary budget receive a 12.7 percent cut, making the total $16.2 billion. This compares to the estimated $18.6 billion in discretionary funds for fiscal year 2017. The budget proposal also seeks to address the “burdensome permitting process.” It calls on the infrastructure initiative to work to streamline and rationalize the permitting process.
Also released today was a document titled “Major Savings and Reforms,” which highlights from where the savings and reforms proposed in the FY18 budget will come. The document specifically proposes the elimination of the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program. As a reminder, President Trump’s “skinny” budget, released in March, also called for this program’s elimination. This new budget cites the similar reasoning for its elimination, saying:
“This program began as part of the 2009 stimulus bill and has not been authorized under the last two multi-year surface transportation authorization acts. It provides Federal funding for projects with localized benefits, and often these projects do not rise to the level of national or regional significance. Further, this program is similar to the Department of Transportation’s Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects grant program, authorized by the FAST Act of 2015, which supports larger highway and multimodal freight projects with demonstrable national or regional benefits. The Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects grant program is authorized at an annual average of $900 million through 2020.”
As we noted when the skinny budget was released, the justification for eliminating the TIGER program is flawed. Competitive grant programs, such as TIGER and the Nationally Significant Freight and Highways Projects grant program (FASTLANE), are critical tools for transportation projects that are difficult to fund through traditional distributions, such as formula programs. Furthermore, TIGER and the Nationally Significant Freight and Highways Projects Program are not interchangeable. TIGER 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 Projects program is aimed at investing in large-scale, freight-specific infrastructure improvements. Competitive grant programs also generate innovation and encourage creative funding and financing arrangements, calling on state and local governments to bring the best deal forward when asking for federal funding assistance.
Linked here is the Coalition’s Executive Director Elaine Nessle’s statement on the importance of TIGER, released originally in March after the publication of the skinny budget. Also linked is an infographic displaying the differences between TIGER and the Nationally Significant Freight and Highways Projects Program.
For those present during our meeting with USDOT last week during the 2017 CAGTC Annual Meeting, you may recall discussion about the release of guiding principles for the infrastructure plan. Those principles were also released today and can be found online here. The document lists four key principles, including: 1) make targeted federal investments; 2) encourage self-help; 3) align infrastructure investment with entities best suited to provide sustained and efficient investment; and 4) leverage the private sector. The document also lists various proposals that will be pursued as part of the infrastructure initiative, including the expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, a lift in the cap and expansion in eligibility of Private Activity Bonds, and liberalized tolling policy, among others.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Katie Cross
Manager, Member Communications & Policy
Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1444 Eye St N.W.
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 828-9100
tradecorridors.org