Early last week, the House
Appropriations Committee drafted an FY 2003 Transportation appropriations
bill (H.R. 5559) that would slightly raise R&D funding in the Department
of Transportation (DOT). The House Transportation bill would
provide $815 million for DOT R&D in FY 2003, $24 million or 3.1
percent more than the FY 2002 funding level (see Table).
The total DOT budget, however, would fall by $6.4 billion or 9.7 percent
to $60.0 billion, the lion’s share of the decrease being borne by the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), whose budget would drop by $4.4
billion or 13.2 percent to $28.7 billion.
The newest addition
to the DOT—the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA)—would receive $130 million for R&D
in FY 2003. TSA was created last fall in the aftermath of the September
11 hijackings to federalize control over airport security and has been
gradually assuming duties previously performed by the Federal Aviation
Administration, including aviation security R&D. This $130 million
in the House bill stands in sharp contrast to that provided in the Senate
version (S. 2808) approved in July that designated $25 million for TSA
R&D activities. (See the August 8 AAAS R&D
Funding Update for details of Senate appropriations for DOT.) At
the time of the Senate action, however, TSA budgetary requests for specific
activities had yet to finalized; thus the committee report that accompanied
the Senate DOT spending bill stipulated that the $25 million for TSA
R&D was only a minimum. When final action is taken on FY 2003 DOT
appropriations, therefore, it is likely that TSA R&D spending will
be much closer to the $130 million specified in the House bill and requested
by TSA itself. Until a final FY 2003 appropriation is signed into law,
however, TSA and all other DOT agencies will have to operate at FY 2002
funding levels under continuing resolutions (temporary appropriations).
Further complicating
the TSA budget picture, of course, is the agency’s likely move to the
proposed Department of Homeland Security (DHS), whose creation is currently
stalled over congressional differences regarding the labor rights of
would-be DHS workers. In addition to the TSA, the Coast
Guard would also migrate to the DHS according to current plans.
(For more information on the proposed DHS, please see the AAAS
special analysis of R&D in the Department of Homeland Security.)
Under the House version of the Transportation bill, Coast
Guard R&D would rise to $22 million, $2 million or 9.3 percent more
than FY 2002. Under the House bill, then, approximately $152 million
in R&D activities would shift from DOT to DHS when and if DHS is
established.
Apart from the
specific implications of the proposed DHS for this year’s budget, a
major factor that shapes every year’s DOT budget is that of transportation
trust funds. Much of the spending in the Transportation bill is exempt
from limits on discretionary spending set out in spending caps and the
annual budget resolution because of three new categories of discretionary
spending created in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st
Century (TEA-21) of 1998 and the Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the
21st Century (AIR21) of 2000.
TEA-21, a six-year reauthorization bill for most highway and transit
programs, dedicates all highway and transit trust fund receipts to transportation
and creates two new categories of discretionary spending (highways and
transit programs) for that purpose. AIR21 provided TEA21-like guarantees
of increased funding for many FAA programs beginning in FY 2001.
For the past
few years, transportation revenues rose faster than expected and all
these revenues were required to be spent on transportation, so DOT spending
went up. But since gasoline tax revenues have fallen recently because
of a slowing economy leading to lower gasoline consumption and lower
vehicle sales, TEA-21 provides for automatic spending cuts in FY 2003.
The Bush Administration’s proposed DOT budget followed the TEA-21-mandated
cuts and thus totaled $55.2 billion in FY 2003, a sharp decline from
$66.4 billion in FY 2002. The House, however, would use general discretionary
funds and borrow from balances in the Highway Trust Fund to prevent
some of the automatic cuts from taking place. Thus, the House would
provide $60.0 billion for DOT in FY 2003, $4.9 billion or 8.8 percent
above the Administration request. The Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA), the primary beneficiary of TEA-21 spending and the primary beneficiary
of this partial restoration would see its FY 2003 budget decline to
$28.7 billion instead of the $24.1 billion proposed by the Administration.
The Senate would pump in even more funds in its Transportation bill,
leaving the DOT budget at $64.9 billion, nearly even with FY 2002, with
an FHWA budget slightly above FY 2002 (see Table).
The House’s partial
restoration of highway funds would also help FHWA R&D, which would
rise 5.8 percent to $291 million under the House plan instead of declining
in the Administration plan. The FHWA total would include $48.7 million
for R&D in the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
program and $90.5 million for surface transportation research. The largest
share of FHWA R&D funds goes to state governments for their transportation
research projects.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would receive $248 million for R&D activities, a sharp decline of $110
million or 30.7 percent. Most of the decline is due to the inclusion
in FY 2002 of $50 million in emergency aviation security R&D funds
and the transfer of some aviation R&D programs to TSA in FY 2003.
FAA’s R&D addresses a number of aviation-related topics, including
weather research, aircraft safety technology, human factors research,
and development of ‘free flight’ technologies to improve aviation system
capacity.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) would receive
$60 million for R&D in FY 2003, up slightly from the FY 2003 level.
Most of NHTSA’s R&D involves highway safety research and the development
of new safety-related technologies, including biomechanical research,
tire safety research, and heavy vehicle research. Of the total designated
for NHTSA R&D, the House would designate $2 million to update NHTSA’s
crash causation study protocols to include such factors as the increased
prevalence of minivans, light trucks and sport utility vehicles on the
nation’s roads, the advent of such technologies as antilock breaking
and stability control systems, and the proliferation of distracting
devices such as cell phones and in-vehicle navigation systems.
Although FY 2003
started on October 1, none of the 13 appropriations bills has been signed
into law. Separate versions of the Transportation bill have been drafted
by the House and the Senate, but neither version has been approved by
the full chamber. Floor debate and approval will not take place until
after the November elections. Until a final Transportation bill is signed
into law, DOT programs will operate at FY 2002 funding levels under
a series of continuing resolutions. The FY 2003 DOT budget may not be
final until December or even next year.
- October 10, 2002
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
science_policy@aaas.org
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
(new URL)
