Obama Budgeting for a Cleaner Transportation Future

A week after President Obama signaled that he would call for an overall 3-year budget freeze (exempting military/defense/security and entitlement programs), he followed through today, releasing a budget that shifts resources into priority programs and putting a long list of other on the chopping block.

The Department of Transportation didn't see much movement in either direction, however, getting a small bump from $77 billion to $78.8 billion. In fact, the president's budget makes it clear that the transportation numbers included are only "placeholders" that demonstrate the need for the federal transportation program to be "fundamentally reformed" to "deliver transportation investments based on greater use of analysis and consideration of program performance."

In the mean time, Obama's budget calls for an extension of SAFETEA-LU through March of 2011, and offers baseline funding for all of the current transportation programs, including:

• $42.1 billion for highways
• $10.8 billion for transit
• $2.8 billion for rail
• $16.5 billion for air infrastructure

So on the surface, not much of a new vision, which is surprising considering the bold steps toward sustainable transportation that Obama took last week with his unprecedented investment in high speed rail.

Diving a little deeper, however, there are some notable shifts in the administration's DOT priorities that give us clues to exactly which path Obama is choosing.

• The president proposes to seed a national infrastructure bank (NIB) with $4 billion. This policy has been one of the president's preferred transportation financing mechanisms since his campaign. In this version, he combines elements of the TIGER program he created last year, and the existing TIFIA program.
• Obama would create an Office of Livability in the Transportation Secretary's office, funded with $530 million to promote smarter, more sustainable transportation planning and decision-making.
• He continues to invest in his high-speed rail plan with another $1 billion. 
• Obama also dips a toe in the waters of NextGen, the modernized air traffic control system, which the airline industry says would increase efficiency up to 12 percent. 

A few transportation programs get slated for eliminations as well, the biggest of which is the Surface Transportation Priorities program, which has become little more than an earmarking slush fund over the years.

It is also worth noting that the administration has included a $100 billion placeholder for a "jobs bill" that will likely include significant transportation spending. However, if previous job-focused transportation investments are any guide, these funds are more likely to support the status quo than particularly sustainable projects.

Individually, none of these policy moves are surprising. Obama has supported versions of most of them at one point or another. But taken together, we can begin to see the outline of the administrations transportation vision a little more clearly.

• First, Obama truly wants to see reform in the federal transportation program, and is not just paying lip-service to reform proponents. His vision for reform is one of a more accountable and efficient system that is clearly linked with national goals (including sustainability).
• Second, the president is not afraid of making big-ticket transportation investments (HSR, NextGen, TIGER, NIB) if they have clear benefits and local support (political and financial). 
• Third, the president intends to partition these items from more general federal-aid transportation program funds, which are for smaller projects. These programs can be made to operate more efficiently to achieve better outcomes, however, and the administration plans to reshape them by emphasizing a performance-driven approach.

For a reform advocate, this approach is worth getting excited about; my only quibble is that I wish we could get to it before March of next year...

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