But the White House is late entering the highway-transit race. Senate floor debate has begun on a two-year $109-billion bill; the House could vote soon on a $260-billion, five-year measure. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood maintains, "Nobody's ahead of anybody else. We're all at the starting gate."

The president also again proposed an immediate $50-billion infusion for highways and other transportation infrastructure. He floated the idea twice last year, but Congress turned it down both times.

The budget would eliminate Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants for large and medium hubs but would allow those hubs to raise passenger facility charges, another construction funding source. But Gregory Principato, president of Airports Council International-North America, slammed the idea, saying that "the only thing it accomplishes is to harm [AIP], which the flying public pays for through the ticket tax."

The budget would hike the highway obligation ceiling 7% and lift Federal Transit Administration spending 3%. But such construction increases are rare in the president's plan. Shoaf says, "The takeaway is that even the Obama administration is looking at a zero-sum world."