Obama’s 2015 Budget Proposes $73 Bln. for Surface Transportation
President Obama’s budget proposal includes $73.61 billion for surface transportation spending in fiscal year 2015, a 1.8% increase over this year’s level as part of a four-year, $302.3 billion surface transportation plan.
The Federal Highway Administration takes up nearly two-thirds of the plan, or $199.2 billion.
In a March 4 press briefing, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said better freight movement is one of his priorities, and the budget includes $10 billion over four years that covers highway, rail and port projects.
Foxx emphasized the nation’s “infrastructure deficit” and the delay in maintenance projects, which “are getting more expensive by the year.” He said the president’s transportation budget would “put us on a path” to solving the problem.
American Trucking Associations criticized the proposal, part of a $3.9 trillion federal budget, for failing to understand trucking’s key role in moving the nation’s goods.
“Today’s proposed budget misses the mark when it comes to the transportation needs of the U.S. economy,” ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement. “It provides no real funding solutions for the long-term health of our infrastructure and proposes massive new subsidies for a mode that moves a small proportion of America’s freight and passengers,” a reference to rail.
“Finding a long-term, sustainable way to improve our nation’s roads and bridges is one of ATA’s top priorities,” said federation Chairman Philip Byrd Sr., president of Bulldog Hiway Express. “Using the proceeds from corporate tax reform, while creative, does little to address the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund or to uphold the principle of users paying for the services they get, in this case, the federal fuel tax, which has not been adjusted in more than two decades to account for inflation and improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency.”
