CAGTC Members,
Yesterday, the House passed a Department of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services and Education minibus package. This cleared the Senate last week. Included in this minibus is a continuing resolution (CR) that will fund the federal government at fiscal year 2018 (FY18) levels through December 7, 2018. Despite concerns that President Trump will not sign the bill over perceived lack of money for border security and a border wall, forcing a partial federal government shutdown, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has said he is “confident [the President] will sign it.”
While USDOT requires a full year’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations package to issue the awards for the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) round of the INFRA program, it is unlikely they will wait for the bill’s passage to issue the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for FY19. Many speculate that the NOFO will be released this Fall but the exact timeline is ever-shifting.
Congress has until December 7 to pass the FY19 THUD bill. The Senate has already passed their version, included in a different minibus package and approved by a vote of 92 to 6 on August 1, 2018. The bill called for around $26.5 billion for the U.S .Department of Transportation (USDOT) and designated $1 billion for the BUILD (formerly TIGER) grant program. As a reminder, last year a two-year budget deal was signed into law that increased federal spending caps for FY18 and FY19. Because of this, BUILD was funded at $1.5 billion in FY18, a number previously reached when the program was created in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. So while the proposed $1 billion is $500 million less than FY18 levels, it is still $500 million more than the program’s average funding levels in recent years. Additionally, the Senate’s legislation would mandate that USDOT use the merit criteria laid out in the Obama Administration’s 2016 TIGER NOFO when making selections.
While a THUD bill has been introduced in the House, it has yet to pass the lower chamber. The House’s bill provided around $27.7 billion for USDOT, around $500 million more than FY18 enacted levels, and calls for $750 million for the BUILD program. Additionally, it would mandate that BUILD project selections be evenly divided between urban and rural locations and calls for $250 million to be used for port projects.
Thank you!
Katie Cross
Manager, Member Communications & Policy
Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1625 K Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
tradecorridors.org