House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and HUD Approves 2012 Budget Bill

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee approved and sent to the full House Appropriations Committee a FY 2012 Budget bill funding programs for both Departments. Funding provisions for FMCSA were included in the DOT section of the bill.

The Subcommittee essentially funded the State Safety Grant Programs including MCSAP at the maximum levels authorized under SAFETEA-LU that were reached in the 2009 FY.  This has resulted in modest cuts for MCSAP and the CDL grant programs because in the 2010 and 2011 funding bills these programs were actually funded above the SAFETEA-LU maximum authorized ceiling.

For 2009, the year in which the maximum SAFETEA-LU funding limits were reached, the allocations were as follows:

$209,000,000: MCSAP
$25,000,000: CDL
$32,000,000: Border
$5,000,000: PRISM
$25,000,000: CVISN
$3,000,000: Safety Data Improvement
$9,000,000: CDLIS Modernization
TOTAL: $308,000,000

For 2011, funding levels for some (*) of the programs was provided outside of the SAFETEA-LU parameters as follows:

$215,000,000: MCSAP *
$30,000,000: CDL *
$32,000,000: Border
$5,000,000: PRISM
$25,000,000: CVISN
$3,000,000: Safety Data Improvement
(dropped THE $9 MILLION CDLIS Modernization Funding)
TOTAL: $310,000,000  

For 2012, the Subcommittee has recommended the following:

$210,000,000: MCSAP
$25,000,000: CDL
$32,000,000: Border
$5,000,000: PRISM
$25,000,000: CVISN
$3,000,000: Safety Data Improvement
(Again, dropped the $9 Million CDLIS Modernization Funding)
TOTAL: $300,000,000

When comparing the Subcommittee’s most recent recommendations to the funding levels for the last year of SAFETEA-LU authorization, MCSAP is still funded $1,000,000 above the limit, but the CDLIS Modernization program at $9,000,000 has again been dropped.

Whether this bill will clear the full Committee and be voted on by the House before September 30 is doubtful.  The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee has yet to take up the FY 2012 bill.  This means a Continuing Resolution (CR)  will be necessitated by September 30.  Whether the CR, which is expected to keep the government funded through the middle of November, will continue the 2011 funding levels or reflect the new levels adopted by the House Subcommittee yesterday is not clear at this point.

The Subcommittee voted down an amendment by Congressman LaTourette (R-Ohio) to prevent FMCSA from paying for EOBR’s that will be required on Mexican trucks crossing the border into the U.S.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Votes on a 4 Month Extension of SAFETEA-LU

The full Committee voted to extend SAFETEA-LU through January 31, 2012. It was a clean extension.  The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has yet to formally take up this issue.  Committee Chairman John Mica has been saying recently that he could support at least one extension of SAFETEA-LU.