Obama’s 2012 Budget Devotes $476 Billion to Transportation, Job-Creating Projects

President Obama last week proposed spending $476 billion on transportation over the coming six years in a plan that includes $50 billion for immediate infrastructure spending to spur job creation.

The budget, a scaled-down version of the $560 billion plan Obama proposed in his 2012 budget, would increase funding for the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Of the president’s $476 billion proposal, $305 billion would fund road and bridge improvements,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters. The transportation spending plan is part of the $3.8 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2013 that Obama sent to Congress on Feb. 13.

Obama proposed to pay for the increases in transportation funding with half the expected savings from winding down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other half would go to lower the annual budget deficit.

The previous long-term transportation spending plan, which has been extended eight times since it expired in 2009, authorized $286 billion, $227 billion of which was for highways.

Under Obama’s plan, FMCSA would receive $580 million in 2013, a 5% increase over its 2011 allocation of $554 million. By 2018, FMCSA funding would top $1 billion.

LaHood said that over the six years of the Obama plan, FMCSA would spend $4.8 billion in its effort “to ensure that commercial truck and bus companies maintain high operational standards while getting high-risk truck and bus companies and their drivers off our roadways.”

In the previous six-year spending authorization, effective in 2003, FMCSA was allocated $2.9 billion over the six years, meaning that under the Obama plan, its budget would be 65.5% higher.

According to Transportation Department estimates, $250 million in 2013 FMCSA money would be spent on administration and on “technology and programs that reduce serious injuries and deaths resulting from commercial motor vehicle crashes.”

Over the six years, $9.9 million in FMCSA funds would pay for multiyear research and development programs focused on “producing safer drivers and carriers . . . through advanced information-based initiatives.”

The president’s fiscal 2013 budget also contains $142.6 million for DOT’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, including $45.5 million for border programs and administering the Mexican longhaul program, the agency said.

NHTSA would get $7.5 billion over six years, $330 million of which would be spent promoting DOT’s campaign against distracted driving, which LaHood called an epidemic.

In the previous reauthorization, NHTSA was allocated $4.4 billion, meaning that, under Obama’s plan, the agency’s six-year budget would be 70% higher.

For fiscal 2013, NHTSA’s allocation would be $981 million, a 23% increase over its estimated 2012 spending of $800 million.

Obama proposed $42.6 billion in FHWA spending for fiscal 2013, although that would be supplemented by the $50 billion in immediate infrastructure investment that includes money for rail projects, as well as roads and bridges.

FHWA’s estimated spending for 2012 is $39.9 billion, down from the $41.8 billion authorized for 2011. However, by 2018, annual highway spending under Obama’s plan would rise about 47%, reaching $58.5 billion in 2018.

The Congressional Budget Office recently said the Highway Trust Fund, which depends on the 24.4-cent diesel tax and the 18.4-cent gasoline tax for the bulk of its revenue, will run out of money in 2013.

Like the Obama proposal last year, his new transportation plan also contains billions of dollars for high-speed passenger rail projects.

In all, Obama requested spending $47 billion over six years on high-speed rail, $2.7 billion of it in 2013.

The Obama plan also would “modernize and simplify the highway program structure by consolidating more than 55 programs into five,” LaHood said.

The DOT budget was welcomed by transportation advocates, such as the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

“We are encouraged to see in the president’s budget continued support for a multiyear, fully funded surface transportation bill,” said AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley.