Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, said he opposes continuing to cover a shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund by transferring General Fund dollars. The Senate approved a $19.5 billion transfer Wednesday to shore up the Highway Trust Fund into next year. (see related story)

"Given our nation's dire financial outlook, we cannot afford to continue funding our highways and transit out of the General Fund," Conrad said at the hearing to review the U.S. Department of Transportation's budget request for Fiscal Year 2011, which begins Oct. 1. "That cannot be the answer. That is why it is critical that we get a long-term highway reauthorization plan from the administration. We need to know how the administration would bridge this funding gap. We would like to hear from Secretary LaHood when Congress can expect to receive the administration's long-term highway reauthorization plan."

In his remarks, LaHood said a long-term surface transportation authorization "is complex and has critical long-range implications for the future. While the president and the Congress continue to work on a long-term strategy for surface transportation, the president's plan continues the current levels of spending: $42.1 billion is proposed for highways and bridges and $10.8 billion for transit."

LaHood told Conrad he doesn't expect to release the administration's authorization proposal before FY 2011 begins. The administration has since last summer asked Congress to temporarily extend the 2005 transportation authorization law known as "SAFETEA-LU" until March 2011. Thus far Congress has enacted three short-term extensions of SAFETEA-LU, the latest of which expires Sunday.

This was the second congressional hearing this month where LaHood has come under fire for the administration's failure to release a surface transportation authorization proposal despite being in office for more than a year. At a Feb. 3 House transportation appropriations subcommittee budget hearing, Chairman John Olver, D-MA, and other subcommittee members told LaHood that the Obama administration must exert greater leadership in this area.

Recovery Act Progress Discussed at Senate Budget Hearing

In addition to the FY 2011 U.S. DOT budget request and authorization, Wednesday's hearing touched on DOT's implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included $48.1 billion for transportation infrastructure. Conrad said transportation investments made by the recovery act appear to have made an important contribution toward the nation's economic turnaround while also improving the nation's long-term economic efficiency and competitive position. Recovery act investments in transportation should have been much higher what was allocated, Conrad said.

"I believe we should have put $200 billion in the infrastructure accounts," he said. "I still believe, looking back, that while we all acknowledge there is a delay in infrastructure projects and getting them moving, that the job creation that would've flowed from that size of a package, as well as the need to deal with the backlog that we confront across the country in terms of highway repair, bridge repair, airport improvement, that those are investments that would've been wise to be made now. You can't get a better time to bid contracts than right now."

LaHood noted the president's budget request for next fiscal year proposes a $100 billion jobs package for transportation, other infrastructure, clean energy investments, and tax cuts for small businesses.

The U.S. DOT budget request is for $79 billion, nearly $2 billion over what was appropriated to the department this fiscal year.

"These resources will support the president's top transportation priorities: improving transportation safety, investing for the future, and promoting livable communities," LaHood said.

The American Highway Users Alliance wrote Congress last Friday objecting to the proposed use of $200 million in highway funds for the administration's livable communities program. (see related story)

The budget request includes $4 billion to establish a new National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund that would invest in projects of regional or national significance through grants or loans.

"The projects funded under the infrastructure fund will be based on demonstrable merit and analytical measures of performance," LaHood said. "Only the most worthwhile projects from around the nation will be selected. ... This marks a bold new way of thinking about investments in our transportation infrastructure and will become a key component of the administration's future surface transportation [authorization] proposal."