(This analysis is a preview of the DOT section
in the forthcoming AAAS Report XXX: Research and Development FY
2006, a comprehensive look at the President’s budget for R&D in
FY 2006. This analysis contains revised AAAS estimates of DOT R&D,
different from figures presented in the AAAS Preliminary
Analysis of February 10. More tables and continually updated supplemental
materials on R&D in the FY 2006 budget can be found on the AAAS R&D
Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
Highlights
- Department of Transportation (DOT) R&D funding would rise 8.5 percent
to $807 million in FY 2006 (see Table II-15).
There would be a big boost in highway R&D, due to a perennial proposal
to shift some resources away from state highway grants to highway research;
similar proposals have been rejected by Congress in past years.
- R&D in
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would decline 11.4 percent
to $233 million, mirroring similar cuts to aeronautics research in NASA
and aviation security R&D in the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS).
DOT R&D in the FY 2006 Budget: Proposed Increases but Slim Chances
of Passage
R&D is a
relatively small part of the DOT budget and would total $807 million
in FY 2006, an increase of $63 million or 8.5 percent, out of a total
DOT budget of $58.8 billion (see Table II-15).
Although the DOT R&D increase would be the largest percentage increase
among the major R&D funding agencies, the increase is highly unlikely
to make it through Congress and reflects a perennial give-and-take between
DOT and Congress over transportation spending priorities.
More than half of the DOT budget goes to the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), mostly for spending out of the
highway trust funds for road projects managed by state and local governments.
Transportation funding increased dramatically beginning in FY 1999 as
a result of the six-year (FY 1998-2003) reauthorization of transportation
programs known as the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st
Century (TEA-21), which governed spending out of the highway trust funds.
The law expired in September 2003, and a series of temporary funding
authorizations, the current one lasting through the end of May 2005,
have kept transportation funding going until Congress can agree on a
new reauthorization law. The old law specified that transportation tax
revenues would be devoted exclusively to transportation, and specified
formulas for allocating these funds. As a result of burgeoning revenues
from transportation taxes, DOT’s budget climbed from $44 billion in
FY 1998 all the way to $67 billion in FY 2001. However, these revenues
have dropped off significantly in recent years, and thus total DOT funding
has leveled off. In addition, the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) and the Coast Guard transferred to the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) in March 2003, bringing the DOT budget down to its current
level of $60.8 billion.
Nearly
all the funds from the transportation authorization bill go to the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) for funds to state and local governments
to finance road projects. Within a declining FHWA budget, however, the
Bush Administration budget would increase FHWA R&D by 32.0 percent
for a total of $445 million, but similarly large increases proposed
in past years have been denied by Congress (see Table
II-15). The Administration once again proposes a reshuffling of
the FHWA accounts to allow for more spending on highway R&D, but
in the past Congress has consistently rejected similar proposals and
maximized state and local funding instead. FHWA spending on surface
transportation research would nearly double to $166 million, mostly
for DOT laboratory-performed research on highway operations, safety,
and pavements. The FHWA total includes $67 million for R&D in the
Intelligent Transportation Systems
(ITS) program, down $6 million from this year. The largest portion
of FHWA R&D funding goes to state and local governments for their
transportation-related research projects; this funding would remain
flat at $158 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would receive $233 million for
its R&D programs, a steep cut of 11.4 percent that mirrors other
agencies’ proposed cuts in aviation and aeronautics R&D. At the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), aeronautics research
would fall 6 percent down to $852 million, while the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) would reduce funding for aviation security R&D from
$178 million down to roughly $100 million in FY 2006. 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
FAA’s R&D portfolio used to be much larger in the $300 to $400 million
range annually before the September 2001 terrorist attacks, but most
of its aviation security R&D portfolio transferred to the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003. FAA investments in aviation advanced
technology development would decline by nearly a third in the FY 2006
proposal.
Figure 1. (click
on the image for PDF)
Because of large increases for
DOT R&D in FY 2001 and FY 2002 responding to the September 11 terrorist
attacks on U.S. aviation, DOT’s support for R&D reached a peak in FY 2002,
after adjusting for inflation (see Figure 1). But with the transfer of aviation
security R&D to the DHS, recent reductions in transportation tax revenues,
and the transfer of the Coast Guard and its R&D program to DHS, DOT R&D
declined sharply in FY 2003 and 2004 before rebounding this year.
Figure 2. (click
on the image for PDF)
The majority
of DOT’s R&D is performed by DOT laboratories and industry (see
Figure 2). Universities and colleges perform just 4 percent DOT’s R&D.
Unlike the other large R&D funding agencies, a large proportion
(most of the ‘other’ category) is performed by state and local governments.
Most of this money comes from the FHWA under formula grants determined
by the highway authorization bill.
- March 2, 2005
(More materials on R&D in the FY 2006 budget, historical data and
charts, and more information on AAAS Report XXX: R&D FY 2006,
can be found on the AAAS R&D web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
AAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607; -6600
www.aaas.org/spp/rd
