H.R. 3763 would provide budget authority for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate the surface transportation programs administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for three years and programs administered by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) for six years. The bill also would authorize the appropriation of funds for certain other transportation programs administered by those agencies.
CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate the bill would:
Provide $167 billion in contract authority (the authority to incur obligations in advance of appropriations acts and a mandatory form of budget authority) over the 2016-2018 period. That amount is about $13 billion more than the amounts contained in CBO’s baseline for such programs.
Provide about $2 billion in contract authority over the 2019-2021 period primarily for administrative expenses.
Authorize obligation limitations that would permit the obligation of $164 billion of contract authority over the 2016-2018 period and authorize the appropriation of $8 billion for programs administered by DOT. CBO estimates those authorizations would result in outlays of $165 billion over the 2016-2025 period.
Appropriate $174 million for programs administered by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) over the 2016-2021 period. That amount is equal to the amounts contained in CBO’s baseline for mandatory pipeline safety programs. Consequently, relative to CBO’s baseline this provision would have no cost. And
Rescind $6 billion in unobligated contract authority from programs administered by FHWA.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3763 would make changes to direct spending and revenues that would reduce deficits by $11 million over the 2016-2025 period. As a result, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates that H.R. 3763 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits by more than $5 billion in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2026.
H.R. 3763 would impose intergovernmental and private-sector mandates, as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA), on railroads, states, and owners and manufacturers of rail tank cars. CBO estimates that the additional cost of the mandates on states and public railroads would fall below the annual threshold established in UMRA for intergovernmental mandates ($77 million in 2015, adjusted annually for inflation). CBO estimates that the aggregate cost of the mandates on private entities would fall below the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($154 million in 2015, adjusted for inflation) in the first five years the mandates are in effect.
