House panel boosts FAA, HUD spending

The House Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee late Thursday night approved a $139.7 billion spending bill that fully funds the major transportation authorization bills of the last few years while cutting Amtrak by $394 million from fiscal 2006.

The bill includes $39.1 billion for the federal highway program as governed by the massive 2005 transportation law. The Federal Aviation Administration would see an increase of $1.4 billion to $15.2 billion, including $1 billion more for airport improvement projects than the White House requested.

Traditionally laden with earmarks throughout transportation and housing accounts, the bill for the first time requires a 40 percent local match for the typically 1,000 or so economic development projects, run out of Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Fund. That would receive $4.2 billion, essentially frozen from the 2006 enacted level.

Discretionary spending in the bill totals $67.8 billion -- funded by general revenues rather than federal fuel taxes -- a hefty increase over 2006. It accommodates $1 billion more for HUD, for a total of $35.3 billion.

But the measure would slash Amtrak spending by 30 percent to the president's request of $900 million -- a figure that probably will increase in conference with the Senate -- while requiring the rail service to reduce operating costs by cutting back on food and beverage services and first-class accommodations.

Appropriators were unable to fully fund President Bush's request for the IRS, cutting it by $110 million for a total of $10.5 billion. That encompasses most of the Treasury Department's total $11.6 billion appropriation, which is basically frozen at last year's levels.

The federal judiciary would receive a 5.9 percent increase, to $6.1 billion, a $197 million cut from Bush's request.

Appropriators decided not to include $306 million in the Bush budget to build a new Coast Guard headquarters on the west campus of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

The full Appropriations Committee will consider the bill June 6, marking the eighth of 11 appropriation bills the panel has approved. The chamber worked late last night on the Homeland Security measure but was forced to delay final action as amendments continued to pile up and tired lawmakers implored leaders to quit.

The White House released its Statement of Administration Policy on the Homeland Security bill today. The administration objects to a provision directing the agency to use an existing government card production facility to develop transportation worker identification cards, a program begun shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The statement said the provision would inhibit the agency's "ability to obtain new technologies or redesign business processes" for the credentialing program.

The White House also said it strongly opposes provisions related to prescription drug re-importation and a measure that would loosen rules governing agency release of "sensitive security information," which panel members say is an overly restrictive designation.