The White House has targeted more than $250 million in transportation spending that it wants to cut under its budget proposal for the 2010 fiscal year that starts in October.
The planned cuts focus on highway, rail, truck and Coast Guard programs that the Obama administration says are either funding channels for congressional earmarks to specific projects, or represent past policy choices that are now obsolete.
Already, lawmakers are vowing to defend many of the programs targeted for cuts, so it is unclear how many might ultimately lose federal funding.
The single largest piece is $161 million in a surface transportation priorities account for earmarks. “The funds are not subject to merit based criteria or competition,” President Obama’s budget said. In addition, states or localities cannot redirect the money from STP earmarks to their highest transportation needs.
And the administration says this STP account, which in 2009 funds 194 separate earmarked projects, is on top of $286 billion authorized under the last multi-year highway bill that is spent under established grant formulas.
Obama wants to save $36 million in 2010 and $190 million over the next five years by ending funding for the Coast Guard’s Loran-C coastal area radio-navigation system “because it is obsolete technology,” the budget said. The satellite-based global positioning system has replaced it, and Loran-C cannot back up GPS, it said.
The budget proposal leaves no money for a rail line relocation program, which is spending $25 million this year, as part of Obama’s assault on earmarks. While the program is aimed at mitigating rail impacts such as congestion as road crossings, most of this program’s funds go to congressionally targeted projects, his budget said. Meanwhile, “an alternative program achieves the same goal based on a formula” that allows states to set their priorities.
Another $10 million would be cut to end an Appalachian highway development program that the budget says is duplicative of existing highway formula funding.
A trucking security program worth $8 million, that aims to train drivers to report security threats, would be ended because it lacks risk-based methods and is spending money on trailer and tractor tracking systems “that private sector grantees should make on their own,” the White House said. It made a similar argument to propose terminating an inter-city bus security grant program that is spending $12 million this year.
The planned cuts focus on highway, rail, truck and Coast Guard programs that the Obama administration says are either funding channels for congressional earmarks to specific projects, or represent past policy choices that are now obsolete.
Already, lawmakers are vowing to defend many of the programs targeted for cuts, so it is unclear how many might ultimately lose federal funding.
The single largest piece is $161 million in a surface transportation priorities account for earmarks. “The funds are not subject to merit based criteria or competition,” President Obama’s budget said. In addition, states or localities cannot redirect the money from STP earmarks to their highest transportation needs.
And the administration says this STP account, which in 2009 funds 194 separate earmarked projects, is on top of $286 billion authorized under the last multi-year highway bill that is spent under established grant formulas.
Obama wants to save $36 million in 2010 and $190 million over the next five years by ending funding for the Coast Guard’s Loran-C coastal area radio-navigation system “because it is obsolete technology,” the budget said. The satellite-based global positioning system has replaced it, and Loran-C cannot back up GPS, it said.
The budget proposal leaves no money for a rail line relocation program, which is spending $25 million this year, as part of Obama’s assault on earmarks. While the program is aimed at mitigating rail impacts such as congestion as road crossings, most of this program’s funds go to congressionally targeted projects, his budget said. Meanwhile, “an alternative program achieves the same goal based on a formula” that allows states to set their priorities.
Another $10 million would be cut to end an Appalachian highway development program that the budget says is duplicative of existing highway formula funding.
A trucking security program worth $8 million, that aims to train drivers to report security threats, would be ended because it lacks risk-based methods and is spending money on trailer and tractor tracking systems “that private sector grantees should make on their own,” the White House said. It made a similar argument to propose terminating an inter-city bus security grant program that is spending $12 million this year.