The Trump administration published its FY2027 budget request, outlining how a major portion of the Republican Party will likely approach budget negotiations. For motor carriers, the proposed budget resembles previous years but includes some noteworthy changes for the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
DOT spending change: More funds for highways
The biggest item for trucking proposes an extra $1.3 billion for the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program, better known as INFRA. The spending would likely be an addition to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provided $8 billion for INFRA over five years (roughly $1.5 billion per year).
Under the budget’s proposed addition, INFRA would receive $770 million for projects to “ease highway congestion and open up freight bottlenecks” and an additional $714 million to “repair or replace highway bridges in disrepair.”
The budget also proposed to cut costs through several other DOT programs, removing:
- $486 million from the Capital Investment Grants program
- The $4.2 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grants program
- The $145 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants program
Cuts to environmental spending around diesel
Under EPA’s umbrella, the budget proposes to make a couple of cuts that affect diesel transportation:
- Cutting climate research
- Removing the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grant program
This is just the beginning of transportation funding talks
The final spending package has significant consequences for commercial carriers, particularly for surface transportation spending. But between the proposed budget and funding spending package is a long and messy series of Congressional negotiations.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers will likely want to make several significant changes to the bill. Still, the proposed budget gives fleets a general idea of some Republicans’ spending goals.
