Hearing of the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee - FY 2016 Subcommittee Markup - Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill

Hearing

Good morning. Today I am pleased to present the fiscal year 2016 THUD bill to the
Subcommittee for your consideration, with goal of a favorable motion to the Full Committee. In
total resources, the bill before you today provides $108.7 billion in budget authority and
obligation limitation for the various programs in the Departments of Transportation and Housing
and Urban Development and Related Agencies. CBO has scored us at the set 302(b) level of
$55.27 billion in discretionary budget authority - $1.5 billion above the enacted FY 2015 levels,
but when comparing appropriated dollars, this bill is really only $25 million over 2015.

I want to thank Ranking Member Price for his willingness to discuss the issues and challenges of
the programs and funding levels under our jurisdiction. I hope there are more than a few bright
spots of common ground in the funding levels we were able to achieve.

I'd like to thank Chairman Rogers for his support and very generous allocation to this
subcommittee. Many of the financial holes we face in crafting this bill are due to factors beyond
our control and the additional funds went to simply backfilling unpredictable CBO scoring and
inflation factors of housing programs.

I'd like to thank Ranking Member Lowey for her contributions to making the safety programs a
priority for this bill and I'm hopeful that she will support moving this bill for Full Committee
consideration.

Finally I'd like to thank all of you, the members of this subcommittee, for your contributions in
the hearings and your letters. We held 6 hearings and you asked a lot of good, relevant
questions. We worked to address as many of your concerns as possible through the funding
levels and report language.

The bill was made available on-line yesterday morning, and your staff had the opportunity to
pour over the bill and the report prior to today, so you know what we are proposing. I'd like to
highlight a few areas:

* We meet the oblim levels contained in the current MAP-21 extension for surface
programs. We support the authorizing committees proposing an extension bill to carry
these important programs forward.

* We provide $100 million for new TIGER awards.

* We provide $129 million over last year for FAA operations to ensure the orderly
operation of the air traffic control system.

* For FAA NextGen investments, the bill includes $931 million.

* Every single one of FTA's signed full funding grant agreements is funded consistent with
the agreed-upon payout schedule, and all the proposed small starts are funded. Further,
we provide $250 million for up and coming agreements and $40 million for core capacity
projects.

* CDBG is funded at last year's level of $3 billion - $200 million more than the request.

* HOME is funded at $900 million.

* Other housing programs are funded at levels sufficient to continue providing a HUDassisted
housing option.

To be able to meet these priorities, we made some strategic reductions to capital accounts and we
scrubbed the bill for overhead savings. Further, this bill has no new programs, no new fees, and
almost all S&E accounts are at last year's level or lower.

I'm sure there will be a few remarks today about more money. I'd like to remind people that if
we wrote to a number that exceeded the budget resolution, the sequestration that would hit in
2016 wouldn't take into account our priorities. We wouldn't be able to protect the transportation
systems our nation depends on, or provide housing to millions of American families. At least
this bill takes steps to make sure our highest priorities are adequately funded.

I would prefer if members held on to amendments until Full Committee, but I welcome your
comments and I would ask for your support in moving this bill to the next step in the process.

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