“Engineering News-Record” reports, “After being shaken by the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee’s proposed fiscal year 2024 spending cuts — some of them deep — for the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, construction and transportation officials were relieved to see that the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Democrats, propose funding numbers for DOT infrastructure programs that generally were up slightly or flat with 2023 levels. Overall, the House panel measure, approved on a 34-27, generally party-line vote on July 18, would slice DOT budget resources by $5.4 billion, to $100.9 billion.” The article notes that the Senate committee measure, approved unanimously last week, adds $1.5 billion to USDOT’s FY 2023 funding level, adheres to formula funding targets and spares popular grant programs that House Republican appropriators voted to cut. ENR suggests that lingering “legislative disagreements” mean it’s unlikely Congress will approve appropriations bills in time for the October 1 start of the next fiscal year.
