The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed a monster-spending bill late last week, which will keep federal agencies funded through the end of September 2016.
The $1.1 trillion Omnibus Appropriations bill includes an extension to the 45G short line tax credit, funds the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program for another round and increases the amount of New Starts funding.
Regarding text extensions, the legislation extends the Railroad Track Maintenance Tax Credit, also known as the 45G short line tax credit, a full two years to Jan. 1, 2017, and it allows short line railroads created after 2005 to claim the credit.
The legislation also permanently extended the transit/parking commuter tax benefit, which will allow employees in a program will be able to set aside $255 in pre-tax dollars each month in 2016 to spend on public transportation, up from the current $130 a month.
An eighth round of the popular TIGER competitive grant program will be funded at $500 million. In October, the seventh found of TIGER funding awarded $500 million to 39 projects.
Amtrak will be funded at $1.39 billion and there is no allocation for high-speed rail.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will see more than an $850 million increase in funding to $11.8 billion. Of that amount, $9.34 billion will be allocated from the Mass Transit Account and $2.177 billion will be allocated to the New Starts Program.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will see an increase of $52 million in allocations, rising to $1.678 billion.
There were also some big waves made on the safety side of the industry within the bill such as not including Twin 33 truck lengths in the legislation (with the exception of Idaho); $350 million was allocated for Section 130 grade-crossing funds, which is an increase and there was $50 million allocated for railroad safety grants split between the railroad safety infrastructure improvement grant program and the railroad safety technology grants for Positive Train Control implementation.
On Friday, Dec. 18, the House passed the Omnibus Appropriations bill, 316-113; the Senate passed it, 65-33 and President Barack Obama signed it into law Friday evening.
Information for this report was gathered from the Omnibus Appropriations bill, the American Public Transportation Association and the National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association.