On Oct. 30, the Transportation Construction Coalition sent a letter to the Senate addressing possible amendments to the FY 2020 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill. The coalition supported the following amendments:
- Barrasso Amendment 1034 which would repeal Sec. 1438 of the FAST Act, the current federal surface transportation law, which requires the rescission of $7.6 billion in unobligated highway contract authority on July 1, 2020.
- Feinstein Amendment 1015 which protects already obligated funding for the California high-speed rail project from being used for other purposes and prevents any further cuts.
- McSally-Jones Amendment 1152 which prevents a potential $1.2 billion in cuts to federal transit programs due to a nearly 40-year old provision tying outlays to future Highway Trust Fund (HTF) – Transit Account revenues.
While the TCC is in favor of the aforementioned amendments, the group opposes Lee Amendments 1165 and 1195 which would limit obligations for highway and transit programs to estimated HTF tax receipts, effectively eliminating approximately $12 billion in surface transportation spending in FY 2020.
