Senate Committee OKs FY26 DOT Funding Bill $4.6B Larger than House Version
Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a draft funding bill for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Bill text was released at 10 a.m. this morning – the bill is S. 2465 and the explanatory committee report is S. Rept. 119-47.
We have spent most of the time since 10 this morning entering much of the data from the bill into our own summary tables which you can download here. We urge you to do so, as the actual bill summarizing will extend through the weekend.
Like the House bill approved in committee last week, the Senate bill also rejects the sweeping budget cuts proposed by the Trump Administration (especially at HUD). But while the House disguised its low levels of new spending by borrowing/stealing $4.4 billion in already existing funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law (the IIJA), the Senate bill limits itself to just $745 million in transfers from the IIJA. As a result, the Senate bill is $4.6 billion above the House bill in terms of new appropriations.
In addition, it is also notable that in the FY 2024 and 2025 THUD bills, the appropriators disguised $8 billion per year of HUD housing renewal costs as an off-budget unanticipated emergency even though the need for the funding was very much anticipated. This was widely regarded as a budget gimmick, but it was one of the unwritten “side deals” in former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s book of many side deals accompanying his Fiscal Responsibility Act. The FRA has now expired, along with its side deals, and the new Senate bill does not disguise any of its HUD funding as an emergency, so they had to go $4.8 billion higher than the House in terms of real appropriations there as well.
With the House and Senate now both opposed to cheating via emergency designation, and the Senate more reluctant to highjack IIJA money than the House, the result is that the House bill has a much higher discretionary spending total in both gross and net terms. For purposes of the all-important budget allocation for the bill, the House bill nets at $89.9 billion while the Senate bill nets at $100.2 billion. Having one bill with an allocation 11 percent above the other bill is not a recipe for an easy House-Senate conference.
There were two targets for massive transferring in the House bill – the National Electric Vehicle Initiative (NEVI) and the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program. The Trump Administration has been trying to kill NEVI from day one and has succeeded in stalling any progress, while FSO received so much money from the IIJA that they can spare some.
The Senate bill mostly goes after NEVI money. (Oddly, section 127 of the Senate bill orders DOT to issue its revised guidance and get the NEVI program going again, but the Senate bill then moves to take $600 million away from the program.)
IIJA Transfers – the House Bill |
||
| Million $ | Transferred From These IIJA Advances… | To These Accounts in the FY26 House Bill |
| 1,000.0 | FHWA National Electric Vehicle Formula | FAA Facilities & Equipment (069-8106) |
| 200.0 | FHWA Reconnecting Communities Pilot | FHWA Tribal Transportation |
| 200.0 | OST National Culvert Removal/Replacement | FHWA INFRA Grants |
| 78.0 | NHTSA Supplemental Highway Traffic Safety | NHTSA Operations and Research |
| 500.0 | FRA Federal-State Partnership for IPR Grants | FRA CRISI Grants |
| 925.0 | FRA Federal-State Partnership for IPR Grants | FRA Amtrak Northeast Corridor Grants |
| 1,387.6 | FRA Federal-State Partnership for IPR Grants | FRA Amtrak National Network Grants |
| 30.0 | FHWA Reduction of Truck Emissions in Ports | MARAD Assistance to Small Shipyards |
| 80.0 | FHWA Reduction of Truck Emissions in Ports | MARAD Port Infrastructure Development Program |
| 4,400.6 | TOTAL TRANSFERRED | |
IIJA Transfers – the Senate Bill |
||
| Million $ | Transferred From These IIJA Advances… | To These Accounts in the FY26 Senate Bill |
| 555.2 | FHWA National Electric Vehicle Formula | FHWA Highway Infrastructure Programs |
| 95.0 | NHTSA Supplemental Highway Traffic Safety | NHTSA Operations and Research |
| 50.0 | NHTSA Crash Data | NHTSA Operations and Research |
| 44.8 | FHWA National Electric Vehicle Formula | FRA CRISI Grants |
| 745.0 | TOTAL TRANSFERRED | |
Having significantly more money to spend than did the House committee meant that they could plug the gaps where the House bill used repurposed IIJA money and do with real money. This was principally in four areas. In millions of dollars:
| House | Senate | |
| (New $) | (New $) | |
| BUILD grants | 0 | 250 |
| Amtrak – NEC | 0 | 850 |
| Amtrak – NN | 0 | 1,577 |
| FTA CIG | 54 | 1,950 |
| Total, Those 4 | 54 | 4,627 |
Counting the IIJA transfers as being fungible with real new appropriations, the big ticket items in the Senate bill compare to the House, the request, and prior years like so:
Again, please download the tables now to understand much of what is in the bill and what is not. Read this companion article for details of the FHWA, FTA, FRA, NHTSA, and FMCSA funding provided by the bill. FAA, OST, PHMSA, and MARAD will be updated on Monday, July 28 at some point.
