The Senate Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee marked up their FY '05 bill yesterday. It included $34.9 billion for the highway programs. Before the August recess, House appropriators passed a bill providing $34.6 billion for highways, which is $1 billion more than the FY '05 $33.6 billion White House request and the appropriation for highways in FY '04.

The Senate bill also included $7.75 billion for transit programs, while House appropriators allocated $7.3 billion for transit, which is almost even with the Bush administration's request and the amount provided this year. New Starts is to receive $1.47 billion in the Senate bill, exceeding the House's $1 billion earmark by nearly 50 percent. The Transportation Department requested $1.5 billion for New Starts in FY '05, and the program will receive a total of $1.3 billion this year.

We are continuing to hear that there are no earmarks for transit and highways until Conference. We are hearing that the Senate mark up included a few earmarks for FAA and research, but little else. We have not been able to confirm this, due to the fact that all materials are embargoed until after full Committee mark up. We have heard from reliable sources that the bill may be marked in Full Committee next Tuesday.