DALLAS – President Obama's $98.1 billion fiscal 2017 transportation proposal is an effort to circumvent last year's bipartisan, two-year budget agreement, Republican lawmakers charged at a hearing held by a House Appropriations subcommittee.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told subcommittee members at the Wednesday hearing that the President's budget for fiscal 2017 adds almost $18 billion for the first year of the proposed 10-year, $300 billion 21st Century Clean Transportation System in addition to the $44 billion for highways and $10 billion for public transit provided by the recently enacted, five-year Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (PL 114-94).
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., chairman of the transportation appropriations subcommittee, said the President's request for a 30% increase in transportation funding from fiscal 2016's $76 billion effectively ignores last year's bipartisan agreement (PL 114-74) that set discretionary budget caps for fiscal 2016 and 2017.
There are few details in the proposal on the $17.9 billion in the 2017 budget for the clean and green transportation initiative, which would be funded by a $10 per barrel tax on oil, Diaz-Balart said.
"It is hard to take much of this budget request seriously," he said.
In what he said was a "more serious violation of our bipartisan agreement," Diaz-Balart said Obama's proposal would also move $4.3 billion of spending that was discretionary in fiscal 2016 to the mandatory category in fiscal 2017 while increasing mandatory spending by a total of $7.4 billion.
"This proposal includes no detail, no legislative language, and is not much more than wishful thinking," he said. "The administration proposes to pay for this proposal mostly with new energy taxes. I don't expect you will see any serious support for new taxes or new mandatory spending from this body."
Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the Appropriation Committee, also criticized the increased funding in Obama's transportation proposal for the clean transportation effort.
"It is disappointing, but not surprising, that President Obama's [latest and] last budget request essentially tears that agreement to shreds, circumventing the statutory cap on spending with billions of dollars proposed on the mandatory side of the ledger," he said. "Now is not the time to focus on pet projects or feathering a nest."
Rep. David Price, D-N.C., the ranking Democrat on the appropriations panel, said the President's transportation proposal is "ambitious, and I think it needs to be ambitious."
"We are fixing potholes when we should be building bridges and laying rails," Price said. "The question is: How do we stop the decay of our transportation infrastructure?"
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said some House Republicans support a resolution that would cut fiscal 2017 spending below the level agreed to last year.
"Unfortunately, some in the majority are intent on turning their backs on that agreement, further constraining your department's ability to fully implement the initiatives contained in the recently passed surface transportation bill," she said to Foxx.
Foxx said the 2017 budget proposal builds on the FAST Act by reforming the funding streams and encouraging more planning at the state and regional levels.
"The FAST Act largely maintains current program, including the traditional funding and program distribution between highway and transit funding, with limited support for multimodal plans and projects," he said.
"The President's budget proposal recognizes that neither the current patchwork funding approach nor the rigid and antiquated distribution of transportation dollars through a formula is going to put our nation's infrastructure in the best possible position for our kids and grandkids," Foxx said.
