Eno Transportation Weekly

April 12, 2019 – An April 10 hearing before the the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee discussed waterborne transportation and appeared designed to make the case for legislation unlocking $9.3 billion in past collections for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund – legislation that seems very likely to be included in the forthcoming infrastructure initiative from House Democrats.

March 20, 2019 – The President’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security includes proposals for a small cut in Transportation Security Administration operational funding, a large cut in Coast Guard procurement, and a two-thirds cut in Federal Emergency Management Agency transportation security grants.

Tuesday, March 26 – House Transportation and Infrastructure – Subcommittee on Aviation – subcommittee hearing on investment in airports (witness list here) – 10:00 a.m., HVC-210, Capitol Visitors Center. Tuesday, March 26 – House Appropriations – Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing – subcommittee hearing on budget requests from House members – 11:00 a.m., 2358-A Rayburn.

March 14, 2019 – The few documents made available this week describing President Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2020 show that the President is proposing to cut Corps of Engineers water infrastructure funding by 30 percent and cut the water infrastructure grant and loan programs of the Environmental Protection Agency by 33 percent.

February 14, 2019 – Yesterday, Sen.

February 9, 2019 – The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the 116thCongress formally kicked off its work yesterday with a marathon seven-hour hearing entitled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Investing in Our Nation’s Infrastructure Cannot Wait.”

February 4, 2019 – Here is a list of every mention of transportation, infrastructure, highways, transit, rail, aviation, and waterways made by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump in the last 20 State of the Union addresses, 1999-2018.

January 22, 2019 – Buried in the back of the omnibus FY19 appropriations bill released by Senate Republicans last night was a removing taking new appropriations out of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund from the spending constraints of the Budget Control Act.

January 18, 2019 – Several Congressional committees organized themselves this week and populated their subcommittees.

January 17, 2019 – House Democrats, in yet another attempt to force members to vote on a different way to end the ongoing federal government lapse-of-appropriations shutdown, have posted online the text of a bipartisan omnibus appropriations agreement negotiated last year – while Republicans still controlled both chambers – that they plan to bring up for a vote in the House next week.

December 11, 2018 – Today, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the full list of recipients of $1.475 billion in fiscal year 2018 funding for 91 individual grants under the Department’s BUILD surface transportation grant program (formerly known as TIGER grants).

December 6, 2018 – As arctic waters become more easily traversable for shippers and tourists alike, the U.S. does not yet have the infrastructure in place to manage its northern waterways, according to a Senate Subcommittee hearing on the topic.

Tuesday, November 27 – Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform – full joint select committee business meeting to complete the mark up of the draft biennial budgeting bill (bill text and amendment adopted at the first markup here)  – 2:00 p.m., 1334 Longworth.

November 15, 2018 – The U.S. senate passed this week the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, which authorizes funding and end-of-year strength levels for the Coast Guard. It also includes provisions relating to the Coast Guard’s fleet recapitalization and vessel discharge.

November 7, 2018 – Voters considered over 300 transportation-related ballot measures this Election Day. While Eno will have much more extensive analysis in the coming weeks, key transportation ballot measures generally fared well, with some noteworthy exceptions.

October 26, 2018 – President Trump signed the biennial water resources development bill (the America’s Water Infrastructure Act) into law on October 23 at a ceremony in the Oval Office – S.

October 18, 2018 – Ports across the country announced volume records this summer as shippers rushed to move goods ahead of the Trump Administration’s proposed tariffs—but what happens when the tariffs come into full effect remains to be seen.

October 19, 2018 – The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has updated its massively useful study of total federal, state and local spending on transportation and water infrastructure since 1956 to cover fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017 (the previous report cut off at FY 2014). The study shows that combined state and local spending in these areas peaked in 2015, in real dollars, and actually declined in both years since.

October 19, 2018 – As part of the Treasury Department’s year-end financial reporting for fiscal year 2018, new reports from the Bureau of the Public Debt show that excise tax receipts for the Airport and Airway Trust Fund grew by 5 percent versus last year, while customs duties received by the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund were up by 9 percent.

October 4, 2018 – At a public event this morning, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released her department’s long-awaited “AV 3.0” guidance document, formally called Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0.