A U.S. House Republican plan to cut 30 percent of federal public transportation funding in fiscal 2012 will not make it through the Senate, Maryland’s senators said Monday.

The Senate is expected to have its markup of the public transportation funding next week.

A spokesman for Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) of Baltimore said the House committee cuts did not affect the capital project funding for Metro. The committee approved the full $150 million Mikulski had advocated for the system to meet the National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendations for safety improvements.

“For all that Metro does to keep government running, get people to work and get cars off the road, this investment in Metro is about jobs,” Mikulski said in an email. “It means residents, commuters and visitors to our nation’s capital can live, work, worship and play throughout the metro area without ever getting in their cars and is invaluable in easing congestion for everyone who uses the region’s strained transportation systems.”

William Millar, president of the nonprofit advocacy group American Public Transportation Association, said the House cuts for public transportation projects would put 36,000 jobs at risk nationally and runs counter to efforts to promote job creation.

“There are a lot of things coming out of the House that will not fly on the Senate side,” said Sue Walitsky, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) of Pikesville.

“In a situation where the budget is tight and cuts have to be made … the Senate wants to make sure these are strategic cuts,” Walitsky said. “Investing in infrastructure creates jobs. Now is not the time to be cutting back on meeting the nation’s infrastructure needs.”

While Metro gets the bulk of the federal funding for transit, the MARC train system and other bus systems throughout the state also receive some federal money, Walitsky said.

The debate about public transportation funding is part of the long-stalled passage of the federal surface transportation funding reauthorization, which expired in October 2009. The one-year extension of it expires Sept. 30. In Maryland, some 2,200 highway projects and 62 transit projects that employ 12,000 people in the state will be put at risk if the reauthorization is not passed, according to Federal Transit Administration estimates.

cford@gazette.net