Transportation & Infrastructure: Federal Role

The Federal government, working in partnership with the states, plays an enormous role in funding and regulating the nation’s primary transportation networks. Each year, through transportation appropriations legislation, billions of federal dollars are allocated to transportation-related programs and projects of all kinds. At the same time, the Federal government sets the regulatory parameters and extensive eligibility requirements under which such money is spent.

Multiyear highway and transit reauthorization legislation, such as the Intermodal Surface Transportation Equity Act (ISTEA), passed in 1991, the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21), passed in 1998, and the Safe Affordable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act:  A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), passed in 2005, have become the principal vehicles for setting long-term surface transportation policy and funding levels. State departments of transportation depend on such legislation to provide stability and predictability to their programs to fund and carry out needed transportation infrastructure improvements. The development of these multibillion dollar transportation authorization bills is closely watched by transportation interests around the country, not only because of the funds involved, but also because of the tax policies and broad regulatory and program priorities that they enshrine. In recent years, for example, there has been a growth in subsidiary Federal transportation-related programs of varying sizes, such as for environmental enhancements, transit, reverse commuting, environmental mitigation, safety, historic preservation, scenic highways, trade corridors, congestion relief, ferries, bikeways and many more.

Today the Federal highway program has grown to well over $30 billion a year and the transit program is over $8 billion a year. Funding firewalls, first enacted in TEA-21, work to shield dedicated highway trust fund money from being diverted to other programs or arbitrarily withheld to give the appearance of reducing the Federal deficit.

Federal support for aviation has been marked by growth in the Airport Improvement Program. The most recent aviation reauthorization bill, enacted in November 2003, provides over $10 billion for the AIP program to improve capacity and safety at the nation’s airports and almost $9 billion to upgrade the FAA air traffic control system. Other big aviation-related issues, which will continue to be addressed in the years ahead, include the increased costs associated with improving airport security and airport capacity.

Because Congress has failed to pass Amtrak re-authorization legislation in recent years, the nation’s passenger railroad service continues to face legislative battles each year to secure needed funding through the appropriations process. Amtrak advocates push for higher funding levels while others seek to tie such funding to structural reforms in the way Amtrak is organized and managed.

The important bottom line is that the Federal role in transportation is perceived to be in need of change because traditional funding sources are not keeping pace with growing transportation infrastructure needs in all areas.  The immediate months and years ahead, especially leading up the next aviation on surface transportation authorization bills, will be a time when critical decisions affecting the nation’s vital transportation interests will be made.