Guaranteed Funding

Guaranteed Funding
Current Law	Administration Proposal H.R. 2088 & S. 1072 as Modified SAFETEA of 2003	House H.R. 3 as Passed House TEA-LU	Senate H.R. 3 as Passed Senate SAFETEA of 2005
Provides $198 billion of guaranteed funding for the period 1998-2003, with $162 for highways, highway safety, and motor carrier safety and $36 billion for mass transit.	Provides $283.9 billion of guaranteed funding for the period 2004-2009, with $235 billion for highways, highway safety and motor carrier safety and $49 billion for mass transit.	Provides $284.0 billion of guaranteed funding for the period 2004-2009, with $231.651 billion for highways, highway safety, and motor carrier safety and $52.352 billion for mass transit. [8003, 1102]	Provides $251.9 billion of guaranteed funding for the period 2005-2009, with $205.348 billion for highways, highway safety, and motor carrier safety and $46.551 billion for mass transit. [3103, 1102]
Provides budget categories for highway and transit discretionary spending, creating "firewalls" between those programs and all other domestic discretionary programs. Highway firewall protects the Federal-aid highway obligation limitation plus the contract authority for NHTSA and FMCSA. The Mass Transit firewall protects both the General Fund and the Trust Fund portions of the Transit Programs.	Similar to current law, updating the list of budget accounts protected by the firewall to reflect the latest budget account structure. Mass Transit firewall protects only the portion of transit programs funded by the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund.	Similar to current law, updating the list of budget accounts protected by the firewall to reflect the latest budget account structure. [8101]	Similar to current law, updating the list of budget accounts protected by the firewall to reflect the latest budget account structure. [3102]
Effect of firewall is that reductions in highway or transit spending will not allow increased spending in other programs.	Same as current law	Same as current law	Same as current law
Keys the firewall amount for highways to both projected and actual tax receipts to the Highway Account of the HTF, and provides for adjustment each year as new projections of future receipts and certifications of past receipts become available.	No comparable provision.	Same as current law	Same as current law
Requires the calculation of the adjustment to compare actual receipts from a prior year with estimates for that year, and to compare estimates for a future year with more recent estimates for that year.	No comparable provision.	Similar to current law, modifying the calculation of the adjustment (to begin with FY 2007), retaining the "look back" at actual tax receipts, but changing the "look forward" to a "look now" comparison comparing the President's Budget estimate with the original estimate specified in the Act for the year before the budget year. One half of the sum of the "look back" and the "look now" would be added to the firewall amount, for the budget year with the remainder added in the next year. [8002]	Similar to current law, modifying the calculation of the adjustment, retaining the "look back" at actual receipts (tax and interest, if any), but changing the "look forward" to a "look now" comparison comparing the Mid-Session Review estimate with the original estimate specified in the Act for the year before the budget year. [3102]
Provides that when the firewall is adjusted, equal adjustments are made to the Federal-aid highway obligation limitation and authorizations. When the adjustment to be made is downward, the adjustment of authorizations is delayed one year	No comparable provision.	Same as current law, except negative adjustments will be made without delay. [1108]	Same as current law, except negative adjustments will be made without delay, except that no negative adjustment shall be made for a fiscal year if, as of October 1 or that fiscal year, the Highway Account balance exceeds $6 billion. [1102, 1105]
No provision for adjusting the transit firewall amount; the transit firewall is not keyed to MTA receipts.	No comparable provision.	Same as current law.	Same as current law.

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