Buttigieg cast the spending as a down payment toward the $2.25 trillion infrastructure package President Biden has outlined, calling the budget “a beginning on investments that we know we’ll need to make on a larger order to really meet the moment.” The White House is also proposing a $3.2 billion increase in the Transportation Department’s discretionary budget to $25.6 billion, a boost of about 14 percent. Since Biden announced his infrastructure proposal last month, Buttigieg has been on a roadshow to market it in television interviews and private talks with lawmakers. He is part of a team of five Cabinet members the White House has tapped for the job. The administration is proposing to fund its infrastructure package by increasing the corporate tax rate, which congressional Republicans cut in 2017. Capito said that she continued to support that tax cut and that raising the rate would cross “a nonnegotiable red line.” Historically, much federal transportation spending has been funded using the gas tax. But the rate has not been raised since 1993, leaving inflation and gains in fuel efficiency to eat into its spending power.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/buttigieg-transportation-budget/2021/04/15/27a2235e-9dfc-11eb-9d05-ae06f4529ece_story.html