The House's fiscal 2013 transportation and housing spending bill cleared its first hurdle today, passing an Appropriations Committee subpanel without any amendments.

The $51.6 billion bill cuts overall spending by $3.9 billion compared with current levels, eliminating funds for high-speed rail and a popular livability grant program. But ultimately, the bill's spending levels are tied to the transportation authorization bill that is now being debated in a conference between the House and Senate.

Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said today that he was "hopeful" the conference would result in a multiyear highway bill -- the deadline for which is June 30. The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, he said, "stands poised to further assist in meeting the needs of our nation's aging road and bridge system."

At today's markup, lawmakers held back on introducing amendments, which they will unleash when the bill hits the full committee later this month. Instead, the panel passed the bill after a half-hour of opening statements, many of which tackled the larger economic issues that led to the bill's funding cuts.

Appropriations Committee ranking member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) characterized the bill as one more step on "the road to austerity which has failed us."

"Once the economy is recovered, then we do have to deal with the long-term deficit," he said. "But until it recovers, we're fooling ourselves if we think by slashing the budget, we're going to improve our economic situation. It's just simply not accurate, and it's foolhardy, and it's the road to disaster."

Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) said the state of the nation's infrastructure is a "pox on both houses." Congress, he said, has not dealt with the underlying issue: a gas tax that no longer pays for "what we need to do."

"People on both sides of the aisle need to buck up here," said LaTourette, who is supportive of increasing the tax. "We're either going to have a federal highway program or we're not. And if we are, we got to get the resources to make it go."

The House proposal would not change highway levels from fiscal 2012, sending $39.1 billion to the Federal Highway Administration, $2.7 billion below the White House request. The Federal Transit Administration would receive $2 billion, a $181 million cut from current levels.

The bill contains no funding for the high-speed rail program, which Republicans have long seen as a waste of money. The budget also does not fund the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) livability grant program, a popular fund that helps communities working on environmental and economic sustainability initiatives.

The $53.4 billion Senate funding bill, which passed the full Appropriations Committee, also did not include rail money but did give TIGER $500 million.

Though Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the appropriations subpanel on transportation, referred to some "holes" in the proposal, he sounded an optimistic note today, commending subpanel Chairman Tom Latham (R-Iowa) for putting together a "respectable bill" that fits the constraints set out in Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's budget framework.

In particular, he applauded the inclusion of $1.8 billion for Amtrak, which is part of the Federal Railroad Administration's $384 billion budget. Olver also highlighted the increase of funds to the Federal Aviation Administration's alternative fuels research.