Infrastructure Bill Funds Status Quo

$682 Billion in new transportation infrastructure spending passed the Senate last week but supports highways not transit alternatives. To put into perspective, the amount spent on the US defense budget was $778 Billion in 2020 alone.

"In its current state, this deal fails to accomplish the administration’s goal of reducing emissions, preserving both the status quo of easy money to build new highways (while neglecting basic repair needs) and the existing, complex hurdles to build transit,” said Transportation America Director Beth Osborne. 

 

Transportation for America (TA) found the Bill falls short even before the dire warning given by the International Committee on Climate Change on Monday. 

The bill provides large federal investments in both public transit and electric vehicle recharging, the expenditures are undermined by historic levels of highway spending that will produce higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions, as it always has. The bill provides a small amount of funding for reconnecting communities divided by highways but providing hundreds of times more funding to build and expand highways creating new divisions. 

The TA Guiding Principles show:

• States are permitted to defer basic needs and  highway maintenance in order to expand (think Toll Roads) new highway systems. This way the expansion is rewarded by federal highway funding but maintenance is not.
• Cut the highway maintenance backlog in half by dedicating formula highway funds to maintenance. 

Our roadways are designed for speed over safety, check the 85% percentile rule followed by Caltrans to set speed limits. Transportation systems focus on speed of delivery compromising safety. The bill should emphasize moving people not vehicles.  Connect people to jobs and services first, then design emphasis should be connecting people to those jobs and services. Prioritize highway projects that will serve that mission and use existing funding expeditiously but meet the mobility goal. This Bill uses status-quo-supporting, five-year transportation bill the Senate passed a few months ago as the guide for investing $682 billion in transportation infrastructure.

What you can do about it:

Call the Capitol Swithboard (202) 224-3121, ask for four amendments:

Talking points:

“I live in [STATE] and I’m calling about the infrastructure deal. While I’m certainly glad that we’re near a deal to invest in our country’s infrastructure, we have to do more than invest in the same way we always have. As the Senate considers the deal this week, I urge you to SUPPORT these following four amendments:

• The Kaine amendment (2373), which would require a “fix it first" approach to highway funding. 
• The Klobuchar amendment (2301), which would require states to reduce traffic death targets and end the practice of planning for them to increase with no penalty.
• The Warnock amendment (2167) (& Cardin 2176), would increase funding for reconnecting communities divided and damaged by highways from $3 billion up to $5 billion.
• The Cardin amendment (2465), would implement a transportation greenhouse gas (GHG) performance measure to finally start considering the climate impacts of our transportation projects.

8.10.21 Update

Coming just a day after a dire new IPCC climate report calling for transformational change, the Senate is providing hundreds of billions for status quo programs that will be used to build new roads and produce ever-increasing emissions for decades to come.  

-LS