House and Senate appropriators are still far apart on how much of the Transportation Department’s budget will go to transit spending, Amtrak and electric vehicle charging.
Committees in both chambers approved their fiscal 2026 spending plans in July — with the House favoring steeper cuts supported by Republicans and the Senate betting on bipartisan consensus. The chambers are now working on trying to agree to a final version before a stopgap spending bill runs out at the end of January.
The House plan would cut overall spending by $3 billion below current levels. It also would cut 98 percent of transit grants and eliminate discretionary funds for Amtrak.
And it would divert $4.4 billion in funding established by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law to other priorities, including $1 billion from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.
