SECRETARY MINETA UNVEILS BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S SURFACE TRANSPORTATION REAUTHORIZATION PROPOSAL

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C.
www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm
News

DOT 40-03

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Contact: Leonardo Alcivar

Tel.: (202) 366-4570

SECRETARY MINETA UNVEILS BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION REAUTHORIZATION PROPOSAL

Largest Ever Surface and Public Transportation Commitment

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta today unveiled the Bush Administration’s six-year $247 billion surface transportation reauthorization proposal. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA), serves as the largest surface and public transportation investment in U.S. history.

The Secretary said the Administration’s proposal more than doubles funding for highway safety over levels provided by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century (TEA-21) and serves as a framework for investments needed to maintain and grow the nation’s vital transportation infrastructure.

“The proposal I have submitted to the Congress is more than a simple spending plan – it is a key blueprint for investment,” said Secretary Mineta. “SAFETEA, when enacted by the Congress, will help ensure transportation projects are completed on budget and on time, while protecting the environment. More importantly, this proposal will further the Administration’s commitment to dramatically reducing the number of highway injuries and fatalities. I look forward to working with the Congress to help pass this important legislation without delay.”

The Secretary also said that SAFETEA, once enacted, would help modernize federal safety programs, create jobs and sustain economic growth, reduce congestion and minimize project delays, increase funding flexibility for states and localities, improve public transit efficiency and help protect the environment.

Citing the unacceptable costs of highway fatalities and injuries, 43,000 lives and $230.6 billion annually, Secretary Mineta said that saving lives would be the number one priority for the department. The proposal would create a new core-funding category dedicated to safety within the federal-aid highway program to increase visibility and funding beyond the current safety set-aside provisions. SAFETEA also creates a new safety belt incentive program to strongly encourage states to enact safety belt laws and achieve substantially higher safety belt usage rates. Secretary Mineta said that if safety belt use were to increase from 75 percent to 90 percent -- an achievable goal -- 4,000 lives would be saved each year.

Combining and expanding several safety programs into one consolidated grant program, the Administration’s proposal also grants states broad new flexibility to transfer safety funds among the diverse safety programs administered by the department, provides increased funding for commercial vehicle safety and research programs, and expands and improves safety auditing of “New Entrant” motor carriers.

SAFETEA continues the funding guarantees of TEA-21 that linked highway funding with the receipts generated by transportation excise taxes; by redirecting to the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund, the 2.5 cents per gallon of the gasohol tax currently deposited in the General Fund; and dedicates an additional $1 billion a year of Highway Trust Fund dollars over and above each year's estimated receipts into the Highway Trust Fund to improve highway infrastructure performance and maintenance.

SAFETEA would smooth out the wide annual swings in total highway program funding caused in part by TEA-21’s Revenue Aligned Budget Authority (RABA) mechanism by modifying the RABA calculation so that annual funding level adjustments are less dependent on future anticipated receipts and more dependent on the levels of actual receipts. SAFETEA also continues guaranteed funding for the portion of the transit program provided from the Highway Trust Fund and creates a new RABA mechanism for transit.

SAFETEA would also establish a new pilot program under which states, working with the department to develop and meet specific system performance measures, could manage their core program funds as a block grant, excluding the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) and the Transportation Enhancements programs, as well as the new Infrastructure Performance and Maintenance Program.

SAFETEA would provide local transportation leaders with simpler, more flexible transportation funding options best suited to meet their needs by streamlining program requirements, especially for smaller grantees, and restructuring Federal Transit Administration (FTA) programs into three major areas: Urbanized Area Formula Grants, Major Capital Investments, and State-Administered Programs.

The Administration’s proposal will help ensure that transportation projects are completed on budget and on time, while protecting the environment. SAFETEA would enhance the delivery of transportation projects and streamline the environmental review process by improving the linkage between the transportation planning and project development processes, strengthening the provisions of current law that establish time frames for resource agencies to conduct environmental reviews and make decisions on permits, and simplify the processing of Categorical Exclusion approvals. It would also provide for timely resolution of outstanding legal disputes by establishing a six-month statute of limitations for appeals on the adequacy of projects’ environmental impact statements and other environmental documents.

In all, environmental programs total $58.7 billion, one quarter of the $247 billion SAFETEA proposal. SAFETEA would protect and enhance the environment by revising the CMAQ program, which it funds at $8.8 billion compared to $8.1 billion for TEA-21, to better address the new air quality standards; revise the High Occupancy Vehicle

(HOV) lane provisions to encourage the use of cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles; encourage the active consideration and implementation of context-sensitive design principles and practices in all federally aided transportation projects; and establish a new Transportation, Energy, and Environment program to carry out a multi-modal energy and climate change research program.

SAFETEA also increases freight efficiency by establishing a National Highway System (NHS) set-aside to fund highway connections between the NHS and intermodal freight facilities. It would also continue the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, lower the program’s project threshold from $100 million to $50 million, and expand it by allowing rail freight projects to qualify for credit assistance. SAFETEA would also create a new category of tax-exempt private activity bonds to finance highway projects and freight transfer facilities.

SAFETEA would strengthen stewardship of federal funds without treading on state prerogatives or creating red tape by requiring that project management plans and annual financial plans be submitted for all federal-aid projects costing $1 billion or more. The proposal would also require that annual financial plans be prepared for all projects receiving $100 million or more in federal-aid funds, and would establish minimum cost-estimating standards in order to provide more reliable and consistent project cost expectations.