Bush Proposes $68 Billion for DOT’s ’09 Budget
President Bush proposed a $3.1 trillion fiscal 2009 budget on Monday that would give the Department of Transportation $68 billion, a $1 billion increase over last year’s request.
The request would provide funding for critical safety programs, congestion relief programs for roads and airways, and honor the six-year transportation funding commitment under the federal highway law, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in a statement.
Peters said the budget encourages innovation in fighting gridlock by proposing to use $175 million and 75% of certain discretionary highway and transit program funds to fight congestion, giving priority to projects that combine a mix of pricing, transit and technology solutions.
The request includes a record $10.1 billion for transit programs, DOT said.
The request also asks Congress for $25 billion for the Department of Energy — a 7.4% boost and the largest requested increase in five years, Bloomberg reported.
It would boost spending on coal and nuclear projects, but cut spending on oil and natural-gas research, including elimination of a $23 million program from the 2008 fiscal year and a $50 million program set up by Congress in 2005 to research gas and other petroleum development from ultra-deepwater and unconventional sources, Bloomberg said.
