President Bush's Proposed FY 2007 DOT Budget

The proposed budget for FY 2007 by President Bush provides highest priority to transportation safety. The budget prioritizes improving Aviation Safety, Highway Safety and transportation mobility. To meet these priorities the 2007 budget:

• Supports an interagency effort to develop the Next Generation Air Transportation System to meet growing demand for airspace capacity;
• Funds intercity passenger rail at a level that will encourage Amtrak to undertake meaningful reforms and control spending;
• Increases funding for critical highway safety programs in support of changes made by the recently-enacted surface transportation reauthorization law; and
• Proposes a $100 million pilot program to demonstrate the benefits of innovative methods of financing highway construction and managing congestion.

The 2007 transportation budget is for $65.6 billion with around $50 billion for transit, highways and safety programs. The budget provides $13.7 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and $8.9 billion for the Federal Transit Administration. The funding also includes $900 million for Amtrak, a reduction of 400 million from the $1.3 billion funding in 2006.

While the administration adheres to the SAFETEA-LU programs in most respects, the transit funding was set at $8.87 billion in FY 2007, 100 million dollars below the authorized and guaranteed level of $8.97 billion in the SAFETEA-LU budget. Under the President’s budget, aviation capital programs would receive $5.25 billion, which is $1.6 billion or 23 percent less than the level guaranteed by the Vision 100 - Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act.

Sources:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/budget.html

http://www.apta.com/media/releases/060206dot_response.cfm

http://www.dot.gov/affairs/mineteasp020606.htm