Senate panel boosts transportation, housing programs in $117 billion spending bill

Senate panel boosts transportation, housing

WASHINGTON — Transportation and housing programs would get generous funding increases under legislation adopted by a Senate panel Wednesday.

Grants for mass transit programs fare especially well, while President Barack Obama’s high-speed rail program wouldn’t get nearly the increases sought by the House in companion legislation that passed that chamber last week.

The $117 billion transportation and housing measure is one of 12 annual spending bills setting agency operating budgets for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The panel’s move came as the Senate was finishing up a $34.3 billion measure funding the Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers water projects.

For programs directly appropriated by the transportation and housing measure, there’s a 23 percent increase over current levels — if the stimulus funding passed in February isn’t included in calculations.

The bill adds $480 million, or 26 percent to Obama’s request for new or expanded grants to local governments for mass transit programs such as purchases of new cleaner-fueled buses. There’s also a $500 million increase above current levels for airport construction and improvements.

But in providing $1.2 billion for high-speed rail programs, the Senate is falling well short of the House, which added $4 billion for the new program — on top of $8 billion provided in the stimulus bill. Obama requested $1 billion.

And the bill provides Obama’s request of $175 million for a much-criticized program that subsidizes rural air travel. The 40 percent increase for the Essential Air Service would help entice small airlines to fly unprofitable routes to places such as Scottsbluff, Neb., Vernal, Utah, and Jamestown, N.Y.

Many critics regard the program as a boondoggle that deeply subsidizes nearly empty flights. The Obama administration has promised reforms but has yet to send lawmakers any ideas on how to fix the program.

The troubled Washington Metro system would also get a $150 million capital infusion to make repairs and replace rail cars. The system has long-overdue maintenance needs and recently experienced a crash that killed nine people.

The subsidy for the Amtrak passenger railroad, always a battle under the administration of George W. Bush, would be $1.5 billion, in line with current funding and Obama’s request.

Highway funds for the states, however, would remain flat under the measure, which caps spending from the Highway Trust Fund at $42.5 billion, a 4 percent increase. The spending measure doesn’t provide the highway money; it instead comes from gasoline taxes.

But with gas tax revenues slumping, the trust fund is about to go broke. The Senate’s move came as the House passed a bill to transfer $7 billion from the general treasury to shore up the highway fund through Sept. 30.