Department of Transportation Budget FY2012

David Randall Peterman
Analyst in Transportation Policy

The President’s Department of Transportation (DOT) budget request for FY2012 totaled $123.9 billion. It was divided into two parts: a “base” request of $78.6 billion, and a one-time “up-front boost,” related to the President’s proposal for surface transportation reauthorization beginning in FY2012, of $50 billion.

The base request was $1.7 billion (2%) more than the FY2010 enacted DOT budget of $76.9 billion. The total request is $53 billion over the FY2010 enacted level. See Table 2 for detailed figures on the request and Congressional action.

One might ask how this increase was possible in light of the President’s stated intention to freeze overall federal discretionary spending in FY2012 (and after) at the FY2010 level. It is possible because most DOT funding is not discretionary funding; it comes from the Highway Trust Fund, and is therefore categorized as mandatory funding. Thus, virtually all of the proposed increase counted as an increase in mandatory rather than discretionary funding. Furthermore, the FY2012 DOT budget request proposed to shift funding for some accounts from the general fund to the highway trust fund (which would be renamed the “transportation trust tund”). This had the effect of reducing the total discretionary funding requested for DOT in FY2012 compared to the amount provided in FY2011, all else being equal.

The FY2012 budget request was complex because it did two different things at once: it requested funding for DOT programs for FY2012, and it restructured the major surface transportation program accounts and funding structure. The latter changes reflected elements of the Administration’s proposal for reauthorizing surface transportation programs for the next six years. The changes included adding intercity rail and new transit construction programs to the programs financed from the trust fund, and increasing the flow of revenues to the fund, although the source of the additional revenues was not specified.

Congress had not passed an FY2012 DOT appropriations bill by the time the 2012 fiscal year began. DOT funding is currently being provided by a continuing resolution (P.L. 112-36, the second one passed for FY2012), which will expire on November 19, 2011.

Congressional action on FY2012 DOT appropriations was delayed due to several factors. First, the FY2011 appropriations act for DOT and other federal agencies was not finalized until April 15, 2011.1 Second, the House-passed budget for FY2012 and subsequent 302(b) allocation of discretionary funding for the Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill called for cuts to highway funding, among other accounts, that were so steep that some doubted they could pass; perhaps for this reason, action on the bill in the House was postponed. The Senate did not pass a Budget Act for FY2012. Soon after completion of FY2011 appropriations, congressional attention was taken up by protracted negotiations over raising the federal debt limit. These negotiations included discussion of the overall FY2012 appropriations level. Action on raising the debt ceiling. as well as setting an overall FY2012 appropriations level, was not concluded until August 2, 2011, with enactment of the Budget Control Act of 2011.2

The Senate Committee on Appropriations reported out an FY2012 appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation (and HUD and related agencies), S. 1596, on September 21, 2011. This bill has been combined with two other appropriations bills (Agriculture and Commerce- Justice-Science) in a “minibus” (as opposed to “omnibus”) appropriations bill, H.R. 2112. That bill was approved by the Senate on November 1, 2011.

The House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies approved a draft bill by voice vote on September 8, 2011.3 The unnumbered draft bill has not been taken up by the full committee. Press reports indicate that the House and Senate are conferencing on the minibus bill.


Date of Report: November 10, 2011
Number of Pages: 11
Order Number: R41650
Price: $29.95

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