The Marine Transportation System and the Federal Role Measuring Performance, Targeting Improvement -- Special Report 279 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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4 Comparison of Federal Roles in Highway, Air, and Marine Transportation
4 Comparison of Federal Roles in Highway, Air, and Marine Transportation
Pages 92-120
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From page 92... ...
History has also influenced the current federal roles. In the case of high ways, the federal government began providing infrastructure and related services long after the private sector and other nonfederal entities had assumed key roles and responsibilities.
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From page 93... ...
The aim of this chapter is to identify aspects of the federal role in the highway and aviation modes that have been beneficial and may have application for marine transportation. The chapter begins with an overview of the structural and institutional settings of the federal highway and aviation programs, including histor ical circumstances that have influenced them.
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From page 94... ...
PROGRAM STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONS Federal Highway Program Today's federal highway program is best understood in the context of its history, which can be divided into three distinct phases relating to the creation of the Interstate highway system. The pre-Interstate phase began in the decade before World War I, when automobiles began to prolifer ate and the federal government began to provide state and local govern ments with added resources to improve and connect their local and county road systems into a national system.
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From page 95... ...
This program brought important changes in the character of the entire fed eral highway program. By defining the specific routes to be included on the Interstate system, as opposed to simply specifying eligibility for fed eral aid, Congress substantially expanded the federal role.
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From page 96... ...
ISTEA, therefore, created major block grant programs for states to use in improving their surface transportation systems, with the input and acceptance of local interests represented by metropolitan planning organizations. ISTEA also called for the designation of a 160,000-mile National Highway System that would encompass the Interstate highways and other major primary routes.
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From page 97... ...
FMCSA is responsible for monitoring and regulating the operation of intercity trucks and buses with regard to safety. Federal Aviation Program The aviation system has been influenced by the federal government to a greater extent than has the surface transportation system, either because it is so different in form and function or because it emerged at a much later date.
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From page 98... ...
When Congress cre ated the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1958, its aim was to consolidate the responsibility for air traffic control, navigation aids, and safety regulation into one federal agency.
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From page 99... ...
USER FINANCING AND TRUST FUNDS Creation of Trust Funds for User Fees The federal highway and aviation programs are financed largely from the federal fees and taxes levied on the users of these transportation systems. Receipts from the fees are credited to national trust funds that cover most federal program costs.
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From page 100... ...
The Highway Trust Fund, which was modeled after the Social Secu rity Trust Fund, was the forerunner of trust funds for financing other federal transportation programs, including the federal aviation program. The Airports and Airways Trust Fund (commonly known as the Avia tion Trust Fund)
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From page 101... ...
In a legal sense, the trust funds provide long-term contracting authority. Because Congress authorizes the aviation and surface transportation programs on multiyear cycles, each reauthorization specifies annual obligation levels for the covered years.
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From page 102... ...
The act did retain limitations on the use of funds, especially for projects and pro grams that could not readily be linked to national highway and transit program goals and benefits. Because ISTEA-authorized funding was drawn from the Highway Trust Fund, highway user groups and other highway interests objected to the funds going too far afield.
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From page 103... ...
Condition and Performance Reports for Surface Transportation Perhaps the most informative and widely referenced report on the federal highway and transit program is the Report to Congress on the Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance (C&P report) .1 Developed by the Secretary of Transportation with assistance from FHWA and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
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From page 104... ...
. The infor mation is derived from samples of thousands of highway segments, state bridge inspection reports, national personal transportation surveys, high way and transit accident records, and various financial, operating, and cap ital reports from state and local transportation agencies.
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From page 105... ...
that are used to guide investments in the air traffic control system, develop long-range estimates of budgetary requirements, and assess the impacts of changes in federal policies and regulations. The forecasts are also used by Congress to project Aviation Trust Fund revenues and to assess future program funding requirements.
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From page 106... ...
ROLE OF INNOVATIVE FINANCING One way in which Congress has sought to ensure that its transportation project investments are sound and to make federal funds go farther is to require the use of nonfederal funds in the financing of new construction. The federal-aid highway program has long required state and local governments to contribute funds to federally aided highway projects.
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From page 107... ...
Such innovative financing techniques, however, have been used in other federal programs, such as EPA's revolving loan programs for brownfields cleanup and water treatment plants, the Maritime Administration's loan guarantee programs for shipbuilding, and several other credit programs administered by the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. A prominent example of a federally aided project using innovating financing methods is the Alameda Corridor in Southern California, which was begun in 1993 and opened for traffic in spring 2002.
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From page 108... ...
Whether this project can serve as a model for financing other large and complex transportation projects is not yet clear. The Alameda Corridor project and other innovative financing programs represent a changing federal role in transportation infrastructure investment -- one that suggests more selectivity (subject to market demand)
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From page 109... ...
However, the federal role has adapted to changing circumstances. COMPARISON WITH MARINE TRANSPORTATION The basic features of the federal marine transportation program were described in the preceding chapter, and those of the federal highway and 109
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From page 110... ...
However, the air trans portation network is less dense; it has fewer nodes and limited intercon nectivity with other transportation systems, especially in comparison with the highway system. About 500 public airports account for nearly all com mercial air transportation of passengers and freight in the country, while about 4,500 others open to public use serve general aviation (TRB 2003, 913)
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From page 111... ...
The federal role has focused largely on ensuring uniformity and connectivity of main highways across state lines. These goals are imple mented through funding assistance and incentives and the provision of information and research support.
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From page 112... ...
Implementation of the Federal Roles Agency Responsibilities and Use of Trust Funds The federal roles in the marine transportation system are dispersed among several federal agencies in a number of cabinet-level departments.
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From page 113... ...
Funding for the federal surface transportation and aviation programs is also concentrated. The funding is derived from national trust funds, which represent the revenues generated from a variety of federal taxes on system users and cover nearly all program expenditures for all federal spending categories.
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From page 114... ...
DOT's biennial highway, bridge, and transit C&P report, required by Congress, is the most prominent example of such efforts. The federal marine transportation programs are also funded in part from fees derived from users and applied to national trust funds.
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From page 115... ...
Funding from both of the marine trust funds is autho rized and appropriated by Congress on a project-by-project basis. The multiyear authorizations and resulting contracting authorities that are used for the aviation and highway programs have, in effect, limited the ability of Congress to withhold spending or divert significant trust fund revenues to other uses.
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From page 116... ...
As the Interstate highway program has moved toward completion, the federal government has explored other ways of instilling such discipline in project selection. One example is the use of innovative financing programs aimed at attracting more private capital to transportation infrastructure projects, which guides expendi ture decisions by adding a market test of project viability.
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From page 117... ...
The situation differs in the federal aviation and highway programs. Each of these programs is administered largely by a single agency and under the jurisdiction of a relatively small number of congressional committees, and comprehensive information on system performance and needs can be collected by one organization.
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From page 118... ...
It administers federal aid to be used by state and local governments within broad expenditure categories defined by Congress. In comparison, the federal role in the aviation sys tem is much more extensive, and many authorities are concentrated in one federal agency, FAA.
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From page 119... ...
Reshaping the federal marine transportation program to emulate the single-agency structures of the federal highway and aviation programs would present challenges. The multiagency institutional structure of the MTS has deep roots.
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From page 120... ...
94911mvp_108_136 4/2/04 1:11 PM Page 120 The Marine Transportation System and the Federal Role Rose, M
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