WASHINGTON — According to a wire service, a wide array of post-Sept. 11 transportation security initiatives, including an overhaul of airport passenger screening and stepped up patrols of U.S. shores, would cost more than $8 billion next year, according to the White House budget blueprint released on Monday.
The centerpiece of the plan is $4.8 billion for a new agency, the Transportation Security Administration, devoted to coordinating air, sea and land security programs.
This includes the purchase of bomb-detection equipment to screen checked baggage at airports and identify new strategies to dramatically increase sea cargo inspection.
Coast Guard spending for duties related to homeland security would go up by more than $1 billion under the budget proposal, which also contained $400 million for port security.
Billions more for security is tucked inside a myriad of Transportation Department programs. For instance, there are security grants for airports, money in highway funds for high-tech monitoring of cargo in trucks, and aid for emergency preparedness research on hazardous materials transport.
Congress appropriated $1.25 billion last year to fund the Transportation Security Administration’s start-up costs, and almost half of its budget for 2003 will be paid by new taxes and fees paid by airlines and their passengers.
The government is scheduled to take over airport screening contracts from the airlines Feb. 17 and must have its entire screening apparatus running at more than 400 airports by the end of this year. By then, the Transportation Security Administration plans to employ 30,000 screeners and other airport security personnel.
Despite the big increase for security, overall discretionary spending for transportation programs in the White House budget plan dropped from an estimated $59 billion this fiscal year to $53.6 billion for 2003.
The decrease was largely due to a $9 billion reduction in money available for highway projects due to lower-than-expected funding from federal gas tax receipts. The decrease was blamed on overly optimistic projections and a drop in receipts caused by the recession.
Big states like California, Texas, and New York will experience significant cuts. But transportation planners said the impact would be eased by the incremental way in which highway money is allocated. Work already begun likely would not be interrupted, but projects not yet started could be delayed.
Despite the drop in highway funding, proposed spending for other major transportation programs would go up, including $7.1 billion for Coast Guard spending, $14 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration and $7.2 billion for mass transit.
In addition, the budget plan proposed $521 million in subsidies for Amtrak, and offered a glimpse of administration thinking on inter-city rail. It favors restructuring financially beleaguered Amtrak around a government-industry partnership.
Amtrak, which lost $1.1 billion in fiscal 2001, threatened on Friday to cut all long haul service by October if Congress did not approve a $1.2 billion funding package.
The Bush administration also proposed $1 million to study possible increases in auto fuel efficiency standards, but critics said the amount was insufficient.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, in a letter to congressional leaders, restated his belief that fuel standards, set at 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 20.7 miles per gallon for light trucks, could be raised by using available strategies. For instance, he said fuel economy targets could be tied to vehicle weight so long as safety was not compromised.
The administration has said the earliest it might propose new standards would be for 2005 model year vehicles.
The budget proposal also includes $116 million to set up inspection and safety programs for opening roads throughout the United States to Mexican long-haul trucks later this year.