Senate EPW Committee introduces Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021

Late last week, on May 22, leadership for the United States Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation Infrastructure issued a bipartisan surface transportation reauthorization bill that was scheduled to be marked up on May 26.

Entitled the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021, the Senate subcommittee said that the bill establishes a new historic baseline funding level of $303.5 billion, which would be allocated for Department of Transportation (DOT) programs for highways, roads, and bridges, and is 34% higher than the current surface transportation authorization, the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act. The FAST Act was signed into law in 2015, and it expired in 2020, but was granted a one-year extension by Congress that is set to expire on September 30.

“I’m proud to join with my colleagues in crafting a bipartisan bill that invests in our nation’s transportation infrastructure at a historic high level, and in doing so, helps create jobs, curbs our carbon emissions, and expands opportunities for the American people,” said Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, in a statement . “We must reauthorize the surface transportation bill before its current authorization expires in September: it is a vital foundation for President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. I look forward to continuing to work to transform our nation’s infrastructure and equip our economy for the future.”

The bill contains various freight transportation-related components, including:

• amending the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (NSFHP) program (also known as the INFRA grant program) by raising the cap on eligible multimodal projects to 30% of the amounts made available for grants in each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026;
• increasing the maximum number of highway miles a State may designate as critical rural freight corridors from 150 to 300 miles, and as critical urban freight corridors from 75 to 150 miles. This section also provides additional flexibility for lower population density States to designate as critical rural freight corridors a maximum of 600 miles of highway, or 25% of the primary highway freight system mileage in the State—whichever is greater;
• the establishment of a program to reduce idling and emissions at port facilities;
• the establishment of a congestion relief program to provide competitive grants to States, local governments, and metropolitan planning organizations, for projects in large urbanized areas to advance innovative, integrated, and multimodal solutions to congestion relief in the most congested metropolitan areas of the United States;
• the addition of new strategies for inclusion within the national freight strategic plan, including strategies to promote resilience, national economic growth and competitiveness, and strategies to reduce local air pollution and water runoff;
• updates to the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program intended to increase program utilization, streamline the application process for assistance, and increase transparency in the vetting process for projects seeking TIFIA funds; and
•  directing the Transportation Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, to establish a pilot program to demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee, among others

This legislation received a strong endorsement from Leslie Blakey, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC).

“CAGTC commends Chairman Carper (D-DE), Ranking Member Capito (R-WV) and Members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) for introducing the bipartisan Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021,” said Blakey. “Included in the proposed bill are provisions that would help advance the state of our nation’s multimodal goods movement infrastructure. We applaud the EPW Committee for introducing a bipartisan reauthorization bill that responds to some of the core funding and policy objectives of our Coalition, and we appreciate and support the overall funding increases—34 percent above FAST Act funding levels for road, highway, and bridge programs.”

CAGTC added it was encouraged by EPW’s leadership in releasing proposed legislation that includes sustained, flexible levels of investment in our national freight network, with the bill increasing INFRA/ Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program funding to $4.8 billion over five years (the FAST Act authorized the program at $4.5 billion over five years). Funds available to multimodal projects through this program increase significantly—from a cap of $500 million over five years to a cap of 30% of funding annually, or $1.44 billion. The proposal also calls for greater transparency measures in the grant decision making process.

And it also endorsed increasing freight formula program funding to $7.15 billion over five years (the FAST Act authorized the program at $6.3 billion over five years) and also increasing the percent of program funds that may be used for eligible multimodal projects from a 10% cap to a 30% cap, or $2.15 billion.

James Burnley, a partner at Washington-based Venable LLP and former Secretary of Transportation under the late President Ronald Reagan, said that the adoption of a bipartisan package by the Senate EPW Committee represents the first step on a long path for passage of a surface transportation reauthorization bill.

“It’s encouraging, but there are many hurdles ahead,” he said. “Those include whether it will be incorporated into a larger infrastructure bill and how, if at all, the increased expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund will be paid for by new revenue provisions, deficit financing or a combination of both.”

As previously reported, this legislation comes at a time when the future of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure is caught in a huge political battle largely over what counts as infrastructure.

Democrats are united behind President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, which includes everything from highways and bridges to home care for elderly and pre-school for 3-year-old toddlers. Democrats say it’s time for a “transformational” approach to rebuilding America in order to compete with China and, as long as they have narrow majorities in the House and Senate, to go big.

Republicans take a stricter constructionist approach – roads, bridges, ports and seaways.  In case one was wondering where Republicans are on infrastructure, here’s the math: one-fourth of where President Biden is. 

A group of Senate Republicans lead by Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., is backing a $568 billion infrastructure proposal as a counteroffer to Biden’s go-big plan. Senate Republicans are pushing user fees for electric vehicles and finding unused federal spending allocated by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Congress passed in March to cover the cost of the plan.