WASHINGTON -- As Congress prepares to take up a major highway bill this year, transportation stakeholders are coalescing around familiar priorities: safety, stable highway funding and efficient integration of emerging technologies.
A coalition of business groups, transportation advocates and industry organizations has been urging congressional transportation leaders to schedule a vote on a surface transportation reauthorization measure well ahead of a September deadline. Their primary argument is that a multiyear bill is critical for long-term planning and investment.
Whenever lawmakers begin rewriting the statute that governs federal surface transportation programs, stakeholders ranging from road builders and transit agencies to state transportation departments, labor unions, environmental groups and trucking interests tend to focus on broad policy outcomes. More localized funding decisions are typically left to individual members of Congress.
As work on the next highway bill in the House ramps up, potentially as soon as this month, lawmakers face a persistent challenge: the Highway Trust Fund, which helps finance the maintenance of the Interstate Highway System and other surface transportation programs, continues to operate with insufficient revenue. The fund, created during the Eisenhower administration, relies largely on fuel tax revenue that has not kept pace with infrastructure needs.
Congressional leaders aim to finalize a comprehensive surface transportation measure as early as this fall that would ideally result in a long-term fix for the fund.
At the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, President Russell McMurry has framed the upcoming reauthorization around a "back to basics" approach that emphasizes predictable federal funding, improved safety outcomes and faster project delivery.
"We can have the best, sort of, transportation bill we think we ever can have crafted legislatively, but if we can't deploy it, then ... what's the point?" McMurry said during a policy forum earlier this year. He also pointed to technology as an area where federal policy could help states modernize project delivery linked to supply chain connectivity.
AASHTO's policy agenda centers on safety, funding and finance, innovation, the federal-aid highway program, public transportation and rail. Executive Director Jim Tymon recently outlined several priorities for Congress, including passing a five-year reauthorization bill on time beginning Oct. 1, maintaining current funding levels adjusted for inflation, and adhering to user-pay principles. The group also is calling for greater reliance on long-standing federal funding arrangements, reduced administrative burdens and full-year transportation appropriations to give states funding certainty.
Similar themes appear in recommendations from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, which has urged Congress to increase and stabilize long-term federal investment, streamline project reviews, promote innovation and invest in workforce development. Doing so, the group argued, would help industries meet future infrastructure demands.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has likewise pressed lawmakers to address what it views as two central challenges in the next highway bill: the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund and permitting reform.
"Absent timely action from Washington, states and local governments cannot maintain these networks on their own," said John Drake, the chamber's vice president for transportation, infrastructure and supply chain policy. Delays in Congress, he said, could undermine efforts to reduce congestion, improve safety and support economic growth, including opportunities tied to boosting manufacturing.
The chamber recently hosted a transportation and infrastructure forum in Washington that brought together state and federal policymakers and freight industry leaders. They agreed Congress should move quickly on reauthorization.
"This is about more than fixing roads and bridges -- it's about giving people safer commutes, more reliable transit and infrastructure that helps businesses grow and keeps household costs down," Drake said, describing the current legislative window as an opportunity to "seize this moment to invest in our future."
Trucking groups also are pressing for a long-term bill with a strong federal focus. American Trucking Associations has called on lawmakers to prioritize the National Highway System, establish dedicated funding for truck parking and repeal the World War I-era 12% federal excise tax on new trucks.
"If you're going to have a federal bill, you should have a federal focus," said Darrin Roth, ATA's vice president of highway policy. He said investments in interstate highways and congested freight corridors would deliver the greatest economic return.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) has said he expects the panel to advance a reauthorization bill after the Easter recess. Current authorization for federal highway programs expires in September. Graves has said the Republican-led committee will debate bipartisan provisions totaling roughly $550 billion to govern the nation's transportation system, with Senate leaders expected to pursue a parallel effort.