U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced President Obama’s $94.7 billion FY 2016 budget for the U.S. DOT. The proposal makes critical investments in infrastructure needed to promote long-term economic growth, enhance safety and efficiency, and support jobs for the 21st century.
Speaking at a town hall at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Secretary Foxx highlighted the president’s budget proposal, which notably includes funding to advance research and autonomous vehicles, while announcing his report “Beyond Traffic,” a look at future trends and choices that will impact America’s transportation system over the next three decades.
“Our budget proposal lays the foundation for a future where our transportation infrastructure meets the demands of a growing population and an economy that depends on the free flow of freight,” said Secretary Foxx. “This administration is looking towards the horizon—the future—but to do this we need Congress’ partnership to pass a long-term reauthorization to put Americans to work rebuilding America.”
The budget provides $18 billion for multimodal freight programs to strengthen America’s global competitiveness and support the president’s “Made In America” trade agenda. In 2013, exports of goods and services reached an all-time high of $2.3 trillion, supporting 11.3 million good-paying American jobs across the country.
The FY 2016 budget reinforces the U.S. DOT’s commitment to safety, creating a new Office of Safety Oversight housed in the Office of the Secretary to improve safety efforts across all modes of transportation. President Obama’s six-year, $478 billion proposal increases funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by an average of 20% annually, providing $6 billion to address safety defects on our highways. This includes $31 million in FY 2016 for NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) to enhance our ability to monitor data, find defects sooner and strengthen NHTSA’s ability to conduct investigations of vehicles with suspected defects.
