A House appropriations subcommittee passed a one-year bill on May 21 to fund the Department of Transportation for the 2027 fiscal year. Current funding for the DOT expires on Sept. 30.
The bill passed on a party-line 9-7 vote. It cuts public transit funding by 22% and Amtrak funding by 69%, compared to FY 2026 enacted levels, according to an American Public Transportation Association analysis.
Its aim is to continue funding at some level while work on the five-year surface transportation legislation continues, sources said.
The bill sets public transit funding at $16.5 billion for FY 2027 and cuts Capital Investment Grant funding 78% to $737 million. According to APTA, cities are requesting $31 billion of CIG funds in FY 2026 and subsequent years for 49 construction projects in 23 states.
The appropriations bill provides $1.5 billion for Amtrak’s national network and $650 million for the Northeast Corridor. It zeroes out funding for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program, which aimed to expand or add new passenger rail service.
Competition for federal funding
Transportation is competing for dollars with housing in the 2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, Brittney Kohler, legislative director of transportation and infrastructure for the National League of Cities, told Smart Cities Dive.
The news is better for cities and metropolitan planning organizations. “We saw some really positive movements that we hope to see expanded, but certainly are a good start,” Kohler said.
“The biggest win was certainly the need for bridge funding,” she added. “This Congress is not only going to put a historic amount of funding into bridges, but they’re going to dedicate 25% to local bridges.”
In the end, it may come down to, “What does Congress want to bring home to their districts?” Kohler said.
Bipartisan bill for surface transportation advances
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on May 22 approved H.R. 8870, the BUILD America 250 Act, on a 62 to 2 vote, providing a blueprint for the next five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.
The 1,005-page legislation invests in bridges, rail safety and other infrastructure programs. The bill also creates a new supplemental funding stream for the Highway Trust Fund in the form of a $130 annual registration fee for electric vehicles and a $35 fee for hybrid vehicles.
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said in a statement that the act “will create good paying jobs while restoring aging bridges, repairing crumbling roads, and supporting safe, accessible rail, transit and bike infrastructure.”
Not everyone agrees.
Transit, passenger rail see lower funding ahead
“While there is a lot of good policy in this bill, if enacted, it is very unlikely it would meaningfully improve passenger rail in the U.S. over the five year life of the bill,” Rail Passengers Association Vice President of Government Affairs and Policy Sean Jeans-Gail said in a published analysis of the bill.
The five-year bill authorizes $63.9 billion for rail programs, including Amtrak, railroad crossing improvements and other programs, but the funds are not guaranteed as they were under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Instead, the funding would be decided each year through the appropriations process. “That means it expects the Appropriations Committees to use the annual budgeting process to find around $13 billion per year for rail programs when appropriators have consistently struggled to stay above the $3 billion mark,” Jeans-Gail stated.
The act “digs its heels into more roadways while robbing from the multitude of sustainable and affordable transportation options that the country needs,” Kevin Shen, senior analyst for the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a news release.
Per an analysis of the bill by Steve Davis, assistant vice president of transportation strategy for Smart Growth America, guaranteed funding for transit goes from $91.2 billion in the IIJA down to $87.6 billion, while guaranteed highway funding increases from $351 billion to $376 billion.
Wide support for the BUILD America 250 Act
The surface transportation bill has many supporters.
The Governors Highway Safety Association said in a May 19 letter to the committee leaders that it appreciates combining two safety grants into one program, which “would provide states with greater flexibility to make data driven investments focused on achieving measurable safety outcomes and remove existing barriers to working with local communities.”
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said in May 20 statement that the bill “reflects many of AASHTO’s core policy principles such as streamlining programs with common objectives, enhancing the efficiency of environmental review and permitting processes to expedite project delivery, and upholding formula-based federal funding to states.”
On the industry side, construction engineering company AECOM said in a May 19 letter, “We are particularly pleased to see the bill’s increased investments that will sustain the momentum of recent years, providing certainty to state and local governments as they advance their own investments in infrastructure.”
Trade associations and labor unions voiced support for the act in a May 22 news release. “Critically, the bill strengthens protections for workers in active construction zones that will help ensure our hardworking men and women can get home safely when the job is done,” the Transportation Construction Coalition stated.
The five-year bill will move forward in the House, and to the Senate at some point, on its long road to passage this year. “All that matters at the end of the day — especially when we talk about transportation — is, can you see the investment we’ve made, and did it make a difference in people’s lives?” Kohler said.
