SPI Insights

Washington, D.C. – President Trump released his draft FY 2021 budget on February 10 that proposes $1 trillion for infrastructure investment that joins budget plans by House Democrats and a U.S. Senate environmental committee.

The draft budget calls for a 10-year reauthorization of surface transportation programs with $755 billion in mandatory spending from the Highway Trust Fund and $55 billion in discretionary spending from the General Fund. These appropriations would be in addition to Trump’s separate proposal for a one-time payment of $190 billion in infrastructure.

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act authorized $305 billion over fiscal years 2016 through 2020 for highway, highway and motor vehicle safety, public transportation, motor carrier safety, hazardous materials safety, rail, and programs for research, technology, and statistics.

In total, the draft budget proposes an 8 percent increase in 2021 for highway and transit formula programs from the level provided in the last year of the FAST Act. The Budget also provides for a 3.8-percent increase to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from the level provided in the last year of the FAST Act.

If approved, the budget would fund several departments and programs including:

• Federal Highway Administration programs – $50.7 billion for FY 2021, $602 billion over 10 years;
• Federal Transit Administration programs – $13 billion in FY 2021, $155 billion over 10 years;
• NHTSA and FMCSA programs – $1.7 billion in FY 2021, $19.8 billion over 10 years;
• Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) program – $1 billion for competitive grant programs and $1 billion in discretionary resources;
• Federal Aviation Administration – $14.2 billion;
• Essential Air Service – $154 million to support commercial air service to rural airports; and,
• Amtrak – $550 million in transitional grants and $936 million in direct grants.

On January 29, U.S. House Democrats released a $760 billion infrastructure package to fund construction of roads, transit systems, airports, and water infrastructure. It would budget funding for five years that includes $329 billion for new highway construction and road safety improvements. It also would fund $105 billion for transit programs and $55 billion for rail projects. Clean water and wastewater initiatives would receive $50.5 billion, $30 million would go toward airport projects, and billions of dollars would support environmental and public safety programs.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee advanced an America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act (ATIA) proposal in July 2019 that would reauthorize the FAST Act for five years. The bill authorizes $287 billion over five years, including $259 billion for formula programs to maintain and repair America’s roads and bridges.