Congress is expected to vote this week on a stopgap appropriations measure known as a "continuing resolution" (or "CR") to keep the government funded through mid-December. Although this will avoid a government shutdown, it will effectively freeze state and local transportation authorities' funding levels, denying them -- until at least December -- increases they had been anticipating.
Specifically, under the highway bill Congress passed last year known as the FAST Act, federal highway and transit programs were scheduled to receive a $1.4 billion increase in fiscal year 2017 over fiscal year 2016 levels. Because "continuing resolutions" simply continue current programs at their current levels, the higher levels called for in the FAST Act wouldn't take effect.
Instead, state transportation agencies would receive funding at current levels until Congress passes a full fiscal year 2017 transportation spending bill, which will happen no earlier than December.
This is a similar pattern to what has occurred in recent years, but is particularly problematic in this instance for the transportation world because it is the first funding decision made after the FAST Act was enacted.
Subscribe to Updates
NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.