Statement by CAGTC President Blakey on US House passage of INVEST in America Act

“The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed the Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act (INVEST Act), a $592 billion five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, an increase of $287 billion over the previous five-year authorization. We congratulate Speaker Pelosi, Chairman DeFazio and the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee for advancing H.R. 3684 off the House floor.

While the INVEST Act contains several elements that will help move our nation’s commerce infrastructure forward, there is a critical piece missing: the multi-year reauthorization of the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program, also known as INFRA, which the bill authorizes for only one year. After FY 2022, the INVEST Act would replace INFRA with a “Projects of National and Regional Significance” competitive grant program, which would focus on megaprojects for all types of transportation needs.

Replacing INFRA with Projects of National and Regional Significance (PNRS) misses the true benefit of both these competitive grant programs. Each is essential to our nation’s multimodal freight infrastructure and should be included in a final legislative package signed into law by President Biden. The latest round of INFRA awards, announced by USDOT this week, awarded over 75 percent of funds to meritorious freight projects. Each year, the program is oversubscribed by billions of dollars, underscoring how critical the INFRA program is for funding large-scale freight infrastructure projects. These vital projects are frequently multimodal and span multiple jurisdictions, rendering them difficult to fund through traditional distribution methods. Despite their complex funding needs, these projects are essential to our nation’s supply chain health and global economic competitiveness. 

Other parts of the bill would contribute to a strong federal goods movement infrastructure strategy and the Coalition applauds the following elements in the INVEST Act:
As Congress considers next steps for reauthorization legislation, our Coalition looks forward to working with the House and Senate to ensure that these freight-specific elements as well as the INFRA program are included in this year’s reauthorization bill.”

• Funding a study to identify a dedicated freight revenue source.
• Adding $2.39 billion to the National Highway Freight Program (the freight formula program) and removing the modal cap on available project funding.
• Dedicating $32 billion for rebuilding our nation’s ailing bridges.
• Providing broad eligibility for multimodal projects in the PNRS program.