2012 proposed federal budget would increase transportation funding

While there is an ongoing focus on fiscal austerity in the nation’s capital, the White House’s proposed fiscal year 2012 budget request for the Department of Transportation of $128 billion represents a 38 percent increase over the proposed amount in fiscal year 2011 and a 39 percent increase over the $77 billion that was enacted for fiscal year 2010.

From a supply chain and logistics perspective, the most interesting part of this budget is the proposed six-year, $556 billion surface transportation and reauthorization proposal, which, if enacted, would be more than 60 percent above the inflation-adjusted levels of SAFETEA-LU (The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users), which expired on September 30, 2009, and has been kept afloat at the same funding level by a series of continuing resolutions since expiring.

In comments accompanying its proposal, White House officials said that this new authorization would “modernize the country’s surface transportation infrastructure, create jobs, and pave the way for long-term economic growth,” adding that President Obama will work with Congress to ensure the plan will not increase the nation’s deficit.

Included in this new six-year plan are funding for highways, transit, highway safety, passenger rail, and a National Infrastructure bank, which would be allocated $30 billion in loans and grants to support individual projects and broader activities of significance for the Nation’s economic competitiveness, according to the White House.

The drum roll for an infrastructure bank has been beating for a while under Obama’s watch, having been prominently mentioned during his presidential campaign and also during a labor rally in Milwaukee last September, which he said could expand and upgrade U.S. roads, railways, and runways to enable the country to have the best infrastructure in the world.

Also included in the budget was a proposal to boost transportation spending by $50 billion above current law spending in the first year of the authorization for roads, railways, and runways. The White House noted that while infrastructure projects take some time to get underway, this $50 billion alone would generate hundreds of thousands of jobs in the first few years in industries suffering from protracted unemployment.

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