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The House Committee on Appropriations voted along party lines on Thursday on the Transportation-Housing Appropriations for FY 2026 that was passed out of subcommittee earlier this week on July 14th. The text of the bill was just released this past Sunday, July 13th. It is unclear if/when it will move to the House floor. The following is a brief summary of the direction Republican leadership on the committee proposes. It is important to keep in mind that there are two categories of funding — one that is spelled out in the authorizing legislation (Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act of 2021) and is defined as Advanced Appropriations, and the second one is the annual appropriation that is determined each year by the appropriations committee. The bill passed in the House Committee on Appropriations would appropriate for DoT, $22.3 billion in new discretionary appropriations for FY 2026 — this represents a $3.1 billion cut in spending for DoT from the current fiscal year (FY 2025) spending. When combined with Advanced Appropriations, the bottom line spending for the Department in FY 2026 would be cut by $1.4 billion. Most notably, the subcommittee shifts $5.4 billion in Advanced Appropriations money included under the IIJA to supplement their other new spending priorities (ie. the FAA is allocated $28.3 billion — an all-time high). During the prior years of the IIJA, the appropriators have not touched the Advanced Appropriations money, even though it has been discussed. The Trump budget submission did not propose to touch Advanced Appropriations but rather proposed to rescind $4.1 billion in IIJA Advanced Appropriations funds for the NEVI electric vehicle charging program and to rescind $1.6 billion for the Charging and Refueling Corridor program. The House Republican appropriations elected not to do that, rather choosing to reprogram IIJA money. The House bill fortunately proposes to fund the Transit Formula Grants program at the level authorized in IIJA – $14.642 billion. So one of our key legislative priorities is favorably addressed in the House bill. The FRA budget is where the most shifting occurs. The House bill transfers unused balances in the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant program. No surprise here as most Republicans were strongly opposed to the significant increase in spending under this program. This program has been a favorite target of Republican budget cutters. The CRISI grant program gets very favorable treatment, thus demonstrating strong political support. The House proposes $538.4 million and accomplishes this through a $500 million transfer from the FSP. Also, $38.4 million is identified for earmarked projects. The bill also rescinds all CRISI projects that have not been used by the six year mark. When combined with Advanced Appropriations, the CRISI program ends up at $1.5 billion for FY 26. Also, language in the bill excludes any funds under the NSP program from being used for the California high speed rail project. Today the DoT announced they were rescinding prior federal grants for CAHSR. Brightline West was not included in the language excluding funds, but other high speed rail projects contemplated in Texas and Minnesota are also excluded from receiving federal assistance. The Capital Investment Grants program gets hit hard in this bill — with a sizable reduction in spending from the current level. The House proposes only $53.7 million in new appropriations for FY 26. Under the IIJA, the CIG program has been receiving Advanced Appropriations for the CIG program of $1.6 billion annually. And then, regular annual appropriations were added to that amount. Under this bill, where the annual appropriation was $2.2 billion for the past two years, it drops to $53.7 million. When that amount is added to the advanced appropriations for CIG, the proposed program total for FY 26 is $1.65 billion — compared with $3.8 billion in 2025. No doubt the appropriators are seeing a drop off in CIG project commitments in the near term so they are likely seizing the opportunity to reduce outlays. In the Senate it is unclear if the THUD appropriations subcommittee will take action prior to the August recess. Several Senate Appropriations subcommittees are expected to move their respective bills through the subcommittees and full committee. Majority Leader John Thune has stated he wishes to move all the appropriations bills through the Senate floor. Speaking of the Senate, they voted by a margin of 51-48 in the very early hours of Thursday to rescind $9 billion in federal funding that was proposed by the President and passed by the House earlier this week. The cuts were targeted mainly at global aid programs and National Public Radio — the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The House will have to pass the bill and send it to the President before the end of Friday, otherwise the funds will have to be released.
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