The administration’s draft budget outline proposes to zero out the federal government’s major transit capital funding, including the programs that would fund Caltrain electrification and other major Bay Area projects: BART to Silicon Valley, the Downtown Extension of the Caltrain tracks to Transbay Terminal, and increases to Transbay core capacity, as reported on this evening by the Washington Post. Any project that doesn’t have final grant approval – including Caltrain electrification which is missing the final signature from the Transportation Secretary – would not get federal funding (see excerpt below).

These cuts would go far beyond Bay Area projects – transit programs in places including Arizona, Indiana, North Carolina and Texas would be slashed – to our understanding, everything in the table below that doesn’t say FFGA, which means “Full Funding Grant Agreement”, meaning final grant approval.

Other proposed transportation cuts include a half-billion from the popular, competitive TIGER grant program, which if we’re reading right, looks like the entire program, as well as  Amtrak’s long-distance rail service outside the Northeast Corridor. Highway funding remains untouched.

The paradoxical bright side in these draconian proposed cuts is that they affect so many areas of the country that there is likely to be massive, hopefully coordinated pushback. This document has a long list of regions that would be hurt by cuts, plus regions that have benefited from federal transit funding in recent years, along with contact information for legislators in those regions.  And this document has a starter list of transit advocacy groups around the country who have an interest in vocally objecting to their legislators in Congress.

Stay tuned for actions you can take in solidarity with others around the country to oppose cuts to federal transit funding before the formal administration budget proposal is expected out in May.

Of course, before the budget becomes law, it needs to be approved by Congress. The administration has already gotten strong pushback on other previewed budget cuts such as slashing State Department spending by over a third.   Readers following the news will also notice the proposal to cut the Environmental Protection Agency by 30%, and deep cuts to medical and scientific research, among other proposed major changes.  Public response around the country will affect which changes survive congressional review.

The risk to Caltrain electrification funding is even greater than all the other projects on the chopping block, because, according to earlier word from the Trump Administration, the grant application would only be signed if there was funding for the program in the President’s officially submitted budget which is expected in May.  Our understanding is that the guillotine moment would be May, not today.

A decision to axe electrification based on the president’s budget would be an administrative decision, not an issue of funding availability. The money is available with funds previously appropriated by Congress. But until the Transportation Secretary signs the application, the administration has the power to deny the grant.