Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is issuing a revision to the cost estimate for the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (STRR Act) that was transmitted on November 17, 2015. That estimate included the cost of a provision appropriating $0.2 billion for grants to rail carriers for certain safety equipment; however, no appropriation for that purpose was included in the STRR Act, as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Removing the effect of that provision slightly reduces the cost of the legislation.

The remainder of this letter is the same as the one transmitted on November 17, 2015. The House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 22, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, as passed by the House of Representatives on November 5, 2015, would: reauthorize spending for transportation programs funded from the Highway Trust Fund for three years; transfer $35 billion from the general fund of the Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund, reauthorize the Export-Import Bank through fiscal year 2019; require that the Federal Reserve’s surplus fund be deposited in the Treasury; and make other changes that would affect direct spending and revenues.

CBO estimates that implementing provisions of the STRR Act would lead to an end-of-year balance in 2018 of approximately $7 billion in the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund and about $1 billion in the transit account of the Highway Trust Fund in fiscal year 2018.