TIGER Wins and High-Speed Rail Loses in New Federal Spending Bill

Though the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) portion of the bill saw a 2 percent decrease in overall spending levels, "[t]he results for multi-modal transportation programs [PDF] are better than we’ve grown accustomed to," observes Snyder.

The popular Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program sees its funding increased 20 percent, from $500 million in 2013 to $600 million in 2014. And while Amtrak gets a small boost in funding from last year to $1.39 billion, high-speed rail and the Office of Sustainable Communities and its Integrated Planning and Investment Grants (formerly known as Regional Planning and Community Challenge grants) will receive no funding.

Also of interest to planners: the House Appropriations Committee's summary [PDF] notes that "The bill contains $6.6 billion for Community Planning and Development programs – a cut of $145 million below last year’s level. The Community Development Block Grant formula program is funded at slightly over $3 billion, $82 million above the fiscal year 2013 enacted level."