President Joe Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 is just the opening round of what is likely to be a long, hyperpartisan election-year battle over federal spending.
But Biden’s budget request, sent to Congress on March 11, outlines his priorities. And it’s clear from numbers from two key construction agencies, the US Department of Transportation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, that big infrastructure spending remains high on their list.
For example, for the US DOT, the application adheres to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) levels for the basic highway and transit formula categories.
This includes $62.1 billion for the highway bond cap and $14.3 billion for transit formula funding. Both represent increases from the amounts contained in the new 2024 appropriations measure: about 3 percent for roads and 2 percent for transit.
The Federal Transit Administration would also get $2.4 billion for the capital investment grant program, which funds new rail and bus rapid transit startups. This sum is roughly the same as the 2024 enacted level and is supplemented by $1.6 billion from the IIJA.
FTA recommends dividing the roughly $4 billion in grants among 14 major projects. The largest award is $700 million for the proposed Hudson Tunnel project, a mega-rail project to link New York and New Jersey.
Paul Skoutelas, president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association, in a statement praised Biden’s budget for continuing support for transit and passenger rail provided by the IIJA.
New $8 million FAA facilities program
In a DOT budget briefing, Assistant Secretary Polly Trottenberg highlighted a proposed new five-year, $8 billion program to upgrade FAA towers, other facilities and radar systems . The 2025 installment of the planned program is $1 billion.
FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said at the briefing that improvements are needed. “The FAA has over 350 air traffic control facilities, and they’re all old,” he said.
Budget fund of the Corps 20 Projects
For the Corps of Engineers civil works program, the budget proposes $7.22 billion, down slightly from the $7.26 billion for 2024 in the new appropriations package.
“The budget continues to prioritize top-performing work within the Army’s Civil Works program’s three core missions, commercial shipping, flood and storm damage reduction, and aquatic ecosystem restoration,” he said. said Michael Connor, assistant secretary of the Army Civil Works. an information session.
Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, the Army chief of engineers, said in an online briefing that the budget request includes more than $2 billion for the construction account. He said the plan includes funding for 20 construction projects, of which three are in the commercial shipping category, eight are for flood and storm damage reduction and eight are for aquatic ecosystem restoration.
The largest allocations are: $500 million for construction of a fish passage facility at Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state; $444 million for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program, including work in the Everglades; $280 million for the Rough River Lake Dam Safety Project in Kentucky; and $264 million for the Soo Lock replacement in Michigan.
The dispute over the 2025 budget will be on the back burner for a while for congressional appropriators because they have not yet finished working on all the 2024 spending bills.
Lawmakers approved, and Biden signed, an appropriations package, including 2024 funding for the DOT, the Corps and several other major infrastructure departments and agencies.
However, a second package of credits is still pending. It includes some construction programs, such as federal buildings at the General Services Administration, and is due to expire on March 22. If lawmakers can’t agree on a new appropriations measure by Sept. 30, they will likely have to resort to a temporary shutdown.
