A Senate panel rejected President Trump’s attempt to cut Obama-era transportation grants, reports The Hill.
According to The Hill, the Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, housing and urban development approved a fiscal 2018 spending bill that includes $550 million for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, which was set up by the Obama administration’s 2009 economic stimulus package.
Trump proposed killing the TIGER program, which provides $500 million per year for the nation’s infrastructure, in his budget request. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Senate subcommittee, was a proponent of increasing funding for the grant program “given the poor condition of our nation’s infrastructure,” reports The Hill.
According to The Hill, the underlying spending measure disposes of Trump’s proposal to slash funding for the Department of Transportation. The Senate measure would provide $19.5 billion in discretionary funding for the agency, which is $978 million above current levels and $3.3 billion more than what Trump requested for the agency.
The legislation would also allow $45 billion for the Highway Trust Fund to be spent on the Federal-Aid Highways Program, provide $1.1 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration’s modernization program and provide $2.1 billion for the Capital Investment Grant program, The Hill reports.
