Bottom line in this alert from Metro’s government relations staff: the budget proposed by House Republicans would cut transportation spending by 14 percent over this year’s spending — and would be 36 percent less spending than proposed by President Obama.

Whether it floats is anybody’s guess. Democrats control the Senate and the White House. And a large number of transit agencies across the nation are increasingly in need of help from Washington with state funding vanishing at home. For example, Metro could lose more than $500 million in Prop 1b funding if the state Legislature can’t agree on a budget.

My best guess is the following is a harbinger of things to come — a lot more big budget battles in Congress over transpo spending.

Here’s the alert:

House Republicans Announce Plan To Cut Transportation Spending In Fiscal Year 2012

Today, the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) announced the budget allocations [302(b)] for the twelve subcommittees under his jurisdiction.

The transportation spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 is expected to be cut approximately 14% from the funding levels in the FY11 transportation spending bill and would, if adopted into law, represent a 36% reduction from the funding being proposed by President Obama in his annual budget [which was released this February].

Specifically, the House Committee on Appropriations has outlined budget authority of $47 billion for the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, as compared to the $55 billion in budget authority secured by the subcommittee in FY11 and the $74 billion proposed for FY12 by President Obama.

The transportation spending bill is expected to be considered by the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation in mid-July, with the full committee slated to consider and adopt the measure on July 26, 2011. The U.S. Senate is expected to craft their own transportation spending bill later this year, under the leadership of U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies.

Our agency and our federal advocates will be working with House and Senate appropriators to ensure that our legislative priorities are promoted in any final transportation spending bill for FY12. A link to the announcement made by Chairman Rogers today may be accessed by clicking here.