Obama's request for the creation of a $4 billion National Infrastructure Innovation & Finance Fund was not included in the bill approved by the subcommittee. Such a fund has not been authorized by Congress. The panel added the money to the highway program instead.

"It is no secret that the surface and aviation programs have been operating without long-term authorizations. As a result, the programs have remained moderately flat except for the investments made last year in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act," said Rep. John Olver, D-Massachusetts and chairman of the House Transportation, Housing & Urban Development, & Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. "The fact remains that our transportation network has great investment needs with aging highways, bridges, and transit systems and an air traffic control system in desperate need of modernization."

The Federal Highway Administration would receive $45.2 billion in FY 2011 funding for the federal-aid highway program, which is $4 billion more than this fiscal year and what President Barack Obama has requested in his budget.

The federal-aid transit program would be increased $618 million. However, additional contract authority for this program would be required. Thus, action would be needed by the authorizing committees to provide higher contract authority.

High-speed and intercity passenger rail projects, however, had funding cut nearly in half by the subcommittee. The Federal Railroad Administration would receive $1.4 billion for these programs next fiscal year, which is $1.1 billion less than what it received in FY 2010, but $400 million more than requested in the president's budget. (The additional funding for high-speed rail this fiscal year came mainly from a reallocation of funds requested by the president for a national infrastructure bank proposal that Congress did not authorize.)

The appropriations bill approved by the subcommittee includes additional TIGER discretionary grant funding for the U.S. Department of Transportation despite the fact that the president did not request additional funding for FY 2011. The bill includes $400 million in TIGER funds, $200 million less than appropriated this fiscal year.

Subcommittee members considered several amendments offered by Republicans, the vast majority of which failed on party-line votes of 8-5. One amendment proposed by Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, was approved. It would require greater transparency for grants provided under the TIGER program.

The Office of the Secretary of Transportation would see its funding cut, receiving $756 million to pursue its projects, including $50 million for Secretary Ray LaHood's distracted driving initiative. FRA would receive $3.5 billion, which is $575 million less than last year.

Despite the overall effort to cut the bill's spending for next fiscal year, several transportation agencies would see their FY 2011 funding increase under the subcommittee's version. The Federal Aviation Administration's funding would go up to $16.5 billion, $908 million more than this year; the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's funding would increase to $47.5 million, $9 million more than this year; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's funding would increase to $883 million, $27 million more than this year; and the Federal Transit Administration's funding would be raised to $11.3 billion, $575 million more than this year.

The appropriations subcommittee's bill summary and a 29-page list of earmarks is available at tinyurl.com/THUD-bill.

House Approves Budget Enforcement Resolution

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-South Carolina, filed a one-year budget enforcement resolution Thursday that would set a limit of $1.12 trillion on discretionary spending, $7 billion less than President Obama requested. The House approved it 215-210 as part of a rule setting debate on a supplemental spending bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For the first time since the modern budget process took effect in 1976, the House has not voted on a concurrent budget resolution with the Senate. The Senate Budget Committee has already approved a conventional FY 2011 budget resolution that calls for $4 billion less in discretionary spending than requested by the president, CQ reported.

House Democrats decided not to produce a full-scale budget resolution for FY 2011. The budget resolution typically projects federal spending, revenues, and deficits over five years.

Spratt defended the use of an enforcement resolution this year rather than a traditional budget resolution, contending Congress is waiting for the results of Obama's debt commission to issue recommendations on how to reduce the federal deficit through spending cuts and tax increases. (The commission met this week and received testimony from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association regarding future funding of transportation infrastructure -- see related story.)