Tackling a full agenda before the Easter Recess, the House voted 216-211 early April 12 to approve its budget plan for Fiscal Year 2004 and subsequent years, with the Senate voting 51-50 later the same day to approve its budget measure, with Vice President Cheney casting the deciding vote. 

In an unusual agreement which departs from customary practice, House and Senate leaders avoided a fight over the level of tax cuts by allowing each chamber to have different tax cut numbers in their budget resolutions. The House plan allows for a $550 billion tax cut package while the Senate held to $350 billion. Each version, however, provides for common spending targets for all federal programs over the next ten years, including assumed six-year spending levels for legislation renewing TEA-21.

The budget agreements assume $7.3 billion for transit in FY’04, substantially below the Senate-passed budget plan and slightly above this year’s spending level of $7.2 billion. It assumes total transit spending of $49.1 billion over the six-year authorization period. For highways, the conference agreement assumes $33.8 billion in obligation limitations for FY’04 as compared to the current level of $31.6 billion. This is considerably higher than the TEA-21-set level of $27.6 billion for FY’03. The total obligation limitation to the states over the six-year period is $218.2 billion. 

Reflecting efforts by the leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the agreement includes provisions that allow House and Senate transportation leaders to develop legislation with spending levels above the budget levels, if new resources can be found to support higher program levels.

Attention Now Shifts to Drafting TEA-3 Bills
With assumed spending levels in place, House and Senate Committee Members and staff can now shift their attention to developing legislation renewing TEA-21. House and Senate are holding meetings, hearings and other sessions to support drafting efforts to develop TEA-21 renewal legislation, with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee indicating that a committee bill will be ready by the Memorial Day recess. The House Transportation and Infrastructure still plans additional hearings in May. It held three-days of consecutive hearings in early April where Members were given an opportunity to indicate their support for specific projects of interest to their Districts.

The Administration’s proposals for renewal of TEA-21 are now in final review within the Office of Management and Budget. In late February, the U.S. Department of Transportation began circulating a draft of its renewal plan that was subsequently shared with the other agencies. With federal agency comments already complete, OMB and other White House officials are now reviewing the plan, making final adjustments before it is submitted to Congress for review. Although no date has been set for submittal, it is likely that the Administration’s plan will be ready as the Congress reconvenes in late April.

STPP’s new President, Anne Canby started off her first month on the job by testifying on Thursday, April 10th before the House Science Committee. The hearing, “Transportation Research and Development: Investing the in Future,” also featured Emil Frankel from the U.S. DOT, and Michael Meyer from Georgia Tech, as well as representatives from the G.A.O., the Illinois State DOT, and the University of Texas.

Canby’s testimony spoke to the need to make research efforts more responsive to public concerns such as promoting public health, protecting the environment, and improving mobility and accessibility for Americans of all ages, physical abilities, and income levels. “Current research efforts focus too much on vehicles, rather the people who use the system, and on facilities that serve vehicles, rather than people and businesses in their communities.” Canby testified that the research agenda should adhere more closely to the basic principles set forth in ISTEA and TEA-21 - intermodalism, economic efficiency, environmental quality, and social equity.

Canby identified a “data deficit” in the transportation field undermining progress toward making smarter and more balanced transportation investments. She specifically pointed to the data failures that led policy makers to overestimate federal transportation funding revenues, resulting in the recent highway funding shortfall, and to the inadequate data on pedestrians, bicyclists, older Americans and children.

Calling on Congress to “Stay the Course,” Canby asked that the Surface Transportation Environmental Cooperative Research Program be retained when TEA-21 is reauthorized later this year. She asked specifically that funding start at $15 million in the first year of the new bill, rising to $28 million be the end of the renewal period.

Click here to read Anne Canby’s testimony.
To view STPP’s TEA-3 platform, “Stay the Course: How to Make TEA-3 Even Better,” visit www.transact.org.

Former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York passed away on March 26. Senator Moynihan was the definitive leader for balance and integrity in the nation's transportation system, authoring the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act in 1991 and protecting its landmark reforms in the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. 

As Chair of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee in 1991, Moynihan worked closely with the late Republican Senator John Chafee, Ranking Member of the full committee, in crafting ISTEA and guiding its enactment through Congress. The law and its renewal reflect Moynihan's lifetime commitment to civil society, pioneering reforms that require meaningful public participation, greater investment in the maintenance and diversity of the nation's transportation system, stronger protections for the environment, and the preservation of historic places. 

In December 2001, at a gala dinner sponsored by STPP on the tenth anniversary of the signing of ISTEA, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan accepted the John H. Chaffee Lifetime Transportation Leadership Award for his seminal role in creating the law. 

Describing their partnership, Senator Moynihan said in his remarks, "Senator John Chafee and I got together and just decided that, with the completion of the Interstate System, we were going to do something different. We supported each other."

“The transportation community was very lucky to have such a dedicated and visionary advocate in Sen. Moynihan during ISTEA and TEA-21,” said Anne Canby, president of STPP. “We are grateful that we had the opportunity to thank him for his service at our gala in 2001, and to publicly acknowledge his incredible contribution to transportation reform.”

Senator Moynihan was among the first to express public alarm at the impact of the Interstate Highway Program on urban communities and the American landscape, writing about it in 1960 as a Professor at the University of Syracuse in his article 'New Roads and Urban Chaos.' As a member of the Johnson Administration, he introduced new analysis on the break up of families as the underlying contributor to poverty. His concern about strengthening families is now widely acknowledged and continues to influence thinking on the proper governmental response to reducing poverty. 

Senator Moynihan dedicated over forty years of his life to public service, serving as U.S. Senator for four terms, Ambassador to India and the United Nations, and adviser to President's Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford. Those who seek to make transportation a force for healthier families and livable communities will miss him as a leader.

The Eno Transportation Foundation’s Board of Directors has named Thomas M. Downs to serve as the organization’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Tom is a nationally recognized leader in transportation policy, having headed a number of highway, rail, and transit organizations over the past 25 years. A member of the STPP Board of Directors, Tom currently serves as Director of the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland. His previous positions include Chairman and CEO of Amtrak, Commissioner of Transportation and Chairman of the Board of New Jersey Transit, President of the Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority , and City Administrator and Director of Transportation in Washington, DC. At the federal level, Tom served as Executive Director of the Federal Transit Administration and as Associate Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. 

“Tom is the right person for the current time” at the Eno Foundation, said Lillian Borrone, Chairman of the Eno Board of Directors. “Tom will be able to build on the excellent reputation that the Eno Transportation Foundation has developed in recognizing emerging issues and preparing transportation leaders at all levels to address them through its policy forums and leadership programs. As we watch the continued globalization of national and world economies, one priority for transportation will be the need to view the different modes of transportation as elements of a transportation system, and to help current and emerging leaders understand the implications of that concept as they consider policies, operational priorities, financing alternatives, and human-resource requirements.”

For more information on the Eno Foundation, visit www.enotrans.com