House, Senate leaders herald new transportation authorization agreement

Earlier today, leaders of key House and Senate committees related to transportation said an agreement has been reached for new long-term surface transportation in the form of a bicameral, bipartisan agreement Conference Report for the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

High-ranking House and Senate leaders involved with the legislation said that the five-year FAST Act is a fully paid-for surface transportation reauthorization of federal highway, transit, highway safety, motor carrier safety, hazardous materials, and passenger rail reforms, adding that it reforms and strengthens transportation programs, refocuses on national priorities, provides long-term certainty and more flexibility for states and local governments, streamlines project approval processes, and maintains a strong commitment to safety. 

“This legislation is a vital investment in our country.  A safe, efficient surface transportation network is fundamentally necessary to our quality of life and our economy, and this conference report provides long-term certainty for states and local governments, and good reforms and improvements to the programs that sustain our roads, bridges, transit, and passenger rail system,” said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA), who is also chairman of the surface transportation bill Conference Committee; Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who is the Conference Committee’s vice chairman; House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR); and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-CA), in a statement.  “We knew that reaching an agreement on this measures would be challenging but every member of the conference committee was certainly up to the task.  We appreciate their hard work in this effort, and we look forward to moving this measure forward and getting it signed into law.”

Current federal surface transportation, which has been kept intact through a series of short-term extensions, or continuing resolutions, is set to expire December 4. According to a report in The Hill, the FAST Act calls for spending of about $205 billion on highway projects and $48 billion on transit spending over the next five years.

Some of the freight transportation- and logistics-related components of the bill include:
-facilitating commerce and the movement of goods by refocusing existing funding for a National Highway Freight Program and a Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program;
-promoting private investment in the surface transportation system;
-requiring changes to the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program to improve transparency in the FMCSA’s oversight activity;
-improve truck and bus safety by accelerating the introduction of new transportation technologies;
-includes fiscally responsible provisions to ensure the bill is fully paid for;
-ensures the Highway Trust fund is authorized to meet its obligations through FY 2020 and directs offsets from the FAST Act into the Highway Trust Fund to ensure fund solvency; and
-reauthorizes the dedicated revenue sources into the Highway Trust Fund, which periodically expire, among others