The road to a bipartisan mega infrastructure deal appears in worse condition than some of the highways and bridges an actual spending package would repair. But when it comes to a smaller spending package, Republicans and Democrats are finding common ground on how to replace the federal surface transportation reauthorization act that expires later this year.
Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., are about $1.5 trillion apart on spending goals for President Joe Biden’s massive American Jobs Plan. If the two parties can’t find a compromise that includes at least 10 Senate Republicans, the Democrats could pass an even larger spending package on their own through the budget reconciliation process, which unlike most bills in the Senate, only needs a simple majority to pass. If all 50 senators in the Democrats’ caucus agree with an eventual plan, Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the deciding vote.
While Republicans have focused their spending proposals on roads and bridges, the Biden-led White House wants an infrastructure bill that includes money that addresses climate change, paid family leave, waterways, rural broadband, and more. But separate from the Biden Jobs Plan is a need to reauthorize or rework Congress’ surface transportation law.
Over the weekend, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) released a bipartisan draft of a new surface transportation law—that would replace the existing law that expires in the fall—worth $303.5 billion. That would make it the largest surface transportation act in history as it is a 34% increase over the previous reauthorization bill, the FAST Act, which passed in 2015.
That previous surface transportation program expired in 2020 but Congress passed a one-year extension that expires on Sept. 30, 2021.
“We must reauthorize the surface transportation bill before its current authorization expires in September,” Sen. Tom Caper (D-Delaware), chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “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 ranking Republican on the committee, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, said that reliable infrastructure is something all Americans can support. “From the beginning of this process, I have expressed my desire to work together across the aisle to develop a bipartisan solution to address our nation’s infrastructure challenges,” she said on May 22. “Our bill unveiled tonight accomplishes this. Not only will this comprehensive, bipartisan legislation help us rebuild and repair America’s surface transportation system, but it will also help us build new transportation infrastructure.”
The proposed transportation bill, while far smaller than Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan, “sends a clear signal that climate change is a top priority for our infrastructure investments going forward,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), chairman of an EPW subcommittee on transportation infrastructure, said.
The bill, along with money for roads and bridges, includes funding for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure through the federal Transportation Alternatives Program.
The 29-page bill includes $250 million in programs aimed at reducing truck emissions at port facilities by studying the benefits of electrifying port fleets and looking at how to reduce emissions from idling trucks. It also includes $2 billion for alternative fueling and charging infrastructure.
While the proposal includes money to maintain roadways, it left out any mention of creating more safe truck parking, which the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association noted is a top safety concern for drivers.
“Washington has again missed an easy and obvious opportunity to address the truck parking crisis,” Todd Spencer, president & CEO of OOIDA, said. “While we appreciate the bipartisan commitment to increase overall funding for highways, the lack of dedicated federal funding for truck parking is a glaring omission in this proposal.”
Spencer noted on May 24 that the EPW bill offers up $250 million in new spending to eliminate invasive plants from highway right-of-ways. “Apparently, the EPW Committee considers weeds a bigger priority than truckers in the next highway bill,” Spencer said. “It’s incredibly frustrating to see the committee has authorized billions of dollars for new programs. But they couldn’t set aside a single penny to fix a well-documented and worsening safety concern that affects millions of truckers on a daily basis, WTF?”
VMT pilot
The EPW proposal also would have the U.S. Department of Transportation begin a national vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) user fee pilot program in all 50 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico. The pilot program would establish per-mile user feeds for passenger vehicles, light trucks, and medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. The pilot would use this data to reflect estimated impacts on infrastructure, safety, congestion, the environment, or “other related social impacts.”
The pilot program, which would work with volunteer participants, would set out to see if motor vehicle per-mile user fees could maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund and thus improve or maintain the surface transportation system.
The Highway Trust Fund is the primary federal funding source for states to maintain and improve roadways. The federal fuel tax rates of 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel—rates last set in 1993—fund the program. Along with inflation over the nearly three decades since the federal fuel tax was last raised, vehicles have become much more fuel efficient, which has hampered the trust fund’s power. As vehicle makers produce more battery-electric vehicles in all classes, the trust fund faces a rocky future if it continues to rely on a 1993 tax.
Biden’s more than $2 trillion American Jobs Plan includes incentives and tax breaks for purchasing electric vehicles. It also includes a plan to build 500,000 electric charging stations across the U.S. and to replace local transit and school buses, most of which now run on diesel, with battery-electric powered vehicles.
“Truckers pay more than their fair share into the Highway Trust Fund, yet their top legislative priority continues to be ignored in favor of other highway users, including those who don’t even pay into the system,” Spencer said. “They can’t even compete with plants for federal transportation funding.”
