05/01/17 CAGTC: FY17 Omnibus Introduced, TIGER Authorized at $500 Million

CAGTC Members,

Early this morning the House and Senate Appropriations Committees released the text of the omnibus appropriations package.  The text of the bill is here and a summary of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) division can be found here. The FY17 omnibus combines all of the FY17 appropriations bills into a single piece of legislation, totaling $1.07 trillion.

$19.5 billion is provided to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), around $650 million more than fiscal year 2016 levels, and includes full obligation limitation on the Highway Trust Fund Contract Authority proposed in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. This means that the funds for both the FAST Act’s freight formula program and Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects, referred to as FASTLANE under the Obama Administration, will be available should the bill pass.

Congress disregarded President Trump’s March 24 request to appropriators to defund the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants and instead authorized the FY17 TIGER program at $500 million. This is a compromise between both the House’s THUD bill, which authorized the program at  $450 million, and the Senate’s THUD bill, which authorized the program at $525 million. The omnibus decreases the maximum TIGER grant from $100 million to $25 million and also reduces the maximum share that can be awarded in a single state each year from 20 percent to 10 percent.

The omnibus also includes $3 million for expenses from the National Surface Transportation and Innovative Finance Bureau, which the Obama Administration referred to as the Build America Bureau. This Bureau is tasked with streamlining credit and grant opportunities for infrastructure development projects while providing assistance and encouraging best practices.

We are currently operating on a Continuing Resolution, which is set to expire on May 5. The omnibus has been introduced as an amendment to an unrelated House bill in order to expedite the process of passage. The Rules Committee is set to meet today at 3 pm to consider procedures for taking H.R. 244 to the House floor. We will keep you updated with any developments.

Best,

Katie Cross
Manager, Member Communications & Policy

Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1444 Eye St N.W.
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 828-9100
tradecorridors.org