ENR's analysis of the Senate Version of the Stimulus Bill

ENR published an article online this morning analyzing the Senate version of the stimulus bill and comparing its infrastructure spending and AEC-related tax initiatives with the House version.

But there are wide differences in allocations for other budget accounts. For example, the Senate has $1 billion for prison construction and upgrades; the House has zero. The Senate also allots $5.5 billion for cleaning up DOE’s former nuclear-weapons facilities, while the House has $500 million.

On the other hand, the House is more generous to Clean Water state revolving funds, providing $6 billion, compared with the Senate’s $4 billion. The House also recommends $3 billion for Airport Improvement Program construction grants; the Senate version contains $1.1 billion.

The largest single construction spending allocation in each bill is federal highway funding. Senate appropriators provided $27.1 billion. Of that, about $570 million is set aside for projects on American Indian reservations, federal lands and for ferry
transportation. The other $26.5 billion would be distributed to states according to the current formula for the Surface Transportation Program. STP requires 10% of the funding go for safety-related spending and another 10% for bike paths and other transportation “enhancements.”