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Tax reform proposals would cut more than taxes

Though presented by Congress as a sensible approach to provide relief from a complicated tax code, Congress’ tax reform proposals would actually increase the deficit and trigger $150 billion in automatic reductions that are likely to end up resulting in deep cuts to vital transportation and infrastructure investments.

A Harvard-Harris poll released yesterday showed widespread support for a simplified tax code, as well as tax cuts for individuals and small businesses. That is good news for the Senate as it considers tax reform this week. However, the same poll found that 54 percent of Americans oppose the current tax reform proposals because they will hurt them financially.

More Americans might consider joining the ranks of the opposition if they truly understood the net impact of the tax reform measure. Namely, because the proposed tax cuts actually increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over ten years, they trigger a little known or understood federal law that will automatically require $150 billion in cuts to federal entitlements every year for the next ten years to make up the difference. (Learn more about the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act here.)

The potential loss of deductions for state and local income and property taxes or the possible elimination of the write off for interest paid on your mortgage are small potatoes compared to the real cost and impact of these future cuts.

Federal spending in 2016 was about $3.5 trillion. Nearly, 65 percent of that money paid for entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other discretionary programs for health care and unemployment. Another 15 percent went to national defense and six percent went to service the interest on our burgeoning national debt. Just seven percent, about $245 billion, paid for everything else — affordable housing, economic development, job training, education, natural resources, public safety and yes, the $2.4 billion we invest annually in public transit improvements and construction.

The current tax proposal will require Congress to cut $150 billion dollars annually from federal spending. And considering that the President wants to increase defense spending and avoid cuts to entitlements, these cuts will likely come from other discretionary programs, like infrastructure. The end result will leave our country poorer, sicker and less secure. Cities and towns, big and small, will continue to struggle with more traffic congestion, poor air quality, and less competitive regional and local economies.

The impacts of deficit-driven tax reform couldn’t come at a more inopportune time for transportation infrastructure. The Highway Trust Fund, which funds most surface transportation investments, is solvent only because of massive transfusions of cash and creative accounting gimmickry. The President’s 2018 budget proposal is already recommending deep cuts, phase-outs or the complete elimination of popular and oversubscribed programs like the program that supports all transit capital investments and the popular Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Program.

The law requires Congress to pay for the tax cuts in this budget-busting bill. But unfortunately, Congress will likely choose to pay the tab by cutting the programs that reinvest in our people and their communities, including critical transportation programs.

After clearing committee late on Tuesday, a final vote on the Senate proposal could happen as soon as this Thursday. It is time to tell your elected officials that the price of this tax bill is too high to pay.

Recent Congressional Activity Summary-Week of October 23rd

As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you the latest information and developments around federal policy. This dedication includes in-depth summaries of what is going on in Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT). Check out what you may have missed this past week in Congress and at U.S. DOT.

Senate Approves FY18 Budget

On October 19th, after a series of amendments the Senate approved H. Con. Res. 71, a concurrent resolution establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2018 and setting budgetary levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2027. The proposed budget significantly reduces non-defense discretionary spending, which would likely require cuts to transit Capital Investment Grants, TIGER, and passenger rail programs. The Senate-passed budget must now be reconciled with the budget approved by the House on October 5th. Both chambers must pass identical budgets to utilize reconciliation (a process by which legislation only needs 51 votes in the Senate) to approve tax reform. T4America will provide updates as the House and Senate work to approve a final FY18 budget. It is important to note, however, that additional budget legislation will be necessary to raise the sequester caps set in the Budget Control Act, allowing Congress to complete its FY18 appropriations work.

Senate Environment and Public Works Reschedules Vote on FHWA Nominee

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee postponed an October 18th meeting during which it was planning to vote on Paul Trombino’s nomination to be FHWA Administrator. T4America has been informed that postponing the meeting was unrelated to Mr. Trombino’s nomination. This meeting has been rescheduled for this Wednesday, October 25^th and we expect his nomination to be approved.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Holds Infrastructure Hearing

On October 11th, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit held a hearing entitled: “Building a 21^st Century Infrastructure for America: Highway and Transit Stakeholders’ Perspectives”. You can watch the full hearing here. In a wide-ranging hearing, the panel of witnesses discussed a variety of issues important to the transportation community. Witnesses and Members agreed on the importance of a long-term solution to the solvency of the highway trust fund. Republicans on the Committee were focused on alternatives to funding the trust fund beside the gas tax. Democrats on the Committee expressed frustration that there have been several hearings about the importance of a long term solution to the trust fund but the Committee has not marked up, or held hearings on, legislation that would raise more funding for the highway trust fund.

Mr. Peter Rogoff, Chief Executive Officer, Sound Transit made a forceful case for transit investment and noted how the President’s budget and House appropriations package actually cuts transit funding, especially the Capital Investment Grant program, and would harm communities like Seattle that have raised billions in local funds for transit investments with the understanding that the Federal government would match the local commitment.

This hearing is part of an effort to prepare Congress to develop an infrastructure package. T4America will provide additional updates as the Administration and Congress work on this issue.

Recent Federal Activity Summary – Week of October 9th

President and Congressional Leaders Release Tax Reform Proposal

On September 27th, the Trump Administration, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the Senate Committee on Finance released what they call the “Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code”. The full framework is available here, and a one-page overview is available here. The proposal would eliminate many tax benefits, including the commuter transit benefit. In 2016, federal law was changed to establish permanent parity between the transit benefit and parking benefit, raising the cap on transit and vanpool benefits to $255.

Tax reform efforts are focused on eliminating many provisions of the tax code, including transportation fringe benefits that cover parking, transit, and vanpools. T4America is concerned that, under the recently released framework, the commuter benefit is at risk of disappearing for good. Eliminating this benefit will end a critical incentive to take transit to and from work, taking money from transit systems already struggling to maintain a state of good repair. T4America will keep you updated as Congress moves forward with this process.

House and Senate Advance FY18 Budgets

The Process: The President submits the President’s Budget Request (PBR) to Congress in the spring. Soon thereafter, the House and Senate Budget Committee’s develop budgets that may or may not be informed by the PBR. Before Congress can consider the 12 appropriations bills that fund the entire federal government, it must first approve a budget. The Congressional budget sets the funding allocations for each of the 12 appropriations bills, allowing the appropriations committees to begin work on the bills. For FY18, the Congressional leadership has chosen to add “reconciliation instructions” to the budget. This is a special process, under which a bill can pass with without a filibuster, using only a majority vote in the Senate (as opposed to the traditional 60 votes). The FY18 budget will include instructions to approve comprehensive tax reform using this process. Passage of an FY18 budget allows Congress to complete its FY18 appropriations work.

The House: On October 5th, the House approved H. Con. Res. 71 — “Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2018 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2027” by a vote of 219-206. H.Con.Res.71 cuts transportation funding, including cuts to Amtrak’s long distance routes, transit, TIGER, New and Small Starts, bike and pedestrian funding, and many other priorities.

The Senate: On September 29th, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Enzi (R-WY) released his FY18 budget. The proposed budget reduces non-defense discretionary spending by $632 billion. This would have a significant negative impact on our transportation programs. The Committee marked up and approved the budget on October 4th and 5th. The full Senate will now consider the budget in the coming weeks.

T4America will provide additional analysis of the House and Senate budgets in the coming weeks.

Senate Environment and Public Works hearing on FHWA nominee

On October 5th, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee held a Hearing on the Nomination of Paul Trombino III to be Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Mr. Trombino is the President of McClure Engineering and the former Director of the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Mr. Trombino has a history of public comments suggesting an openness to new ways of thinking about our nation’s highway system. T4America submitted suggested questions to the Committee to help prepare for the hearing. Chairman Barasso (R-WY), Ranking Member Carper (D-DE), and Members of the Committee focused their questions on the proposed infrastructure bill, project review and approval process, resilience, and Public Private Partnerships. Mr. Trombino stated he is not aware of the status of the proposed infrastructure package but that he will become aware and brief Congress should he be confirmed. On other issues, Mr. Trombino pledged to work to address Senators concerns.

Absent any additional and disqualifying information, T4America expects the EPW Committee to favorably report Mr. Trombino’s nomination to the full Senate.

Senate Commerce Committee Approves Autonomous Vehicle Legislation

On Friday, September 8, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved held a markup to amend and vote on S. 1885, The American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act. The bill was approved by the Committee and will now be referred to the full Senate for further consideration. Despite some minor improvements, T4America remains concerned that this bill will preempt the ability of local governments to enforce their local traffic safety laws, potentially putting the public at risk. In addition, the bill does not provide the data-sharing framework necessary to ensure that local governments and law enforcement can adequately prepare for these vehicles.

Here’s the link to the statement T4America put out after the markup: https://t4america.org/2017/10/04/t4america-statement-senate-commerce-av-start-markup/.

What Happened at the Markup

There were 28 amendments offered during the Committee markup, a number of which were considered and approved en bloc, the result of an overnight deal. The full list of all approved amendments is available here: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=BA5E2D29-2BF3-4FC7-A79D-58B9E186412C. T4America is analyzing the approved amendments and updated bill text and will continue to provide additional details.

For additional information, please see our previous policy update.

U.S. DOT Releases Proposal to Harmonize Environmental Reviews

At the end of September, US DOT released a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) that will harmonize to a much greater extent the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for projects that need review from multiple U.S. DOT agencies. If you would like to submit comments to U.S. DOT about this regulation, comments are due to U.S. DOT on or before November 28th.

Under this SNPRM, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will be added to the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) existing rules and regulations for NEPA reviews under part 771 and part 774 of title 23 of the Code of Federal regulations. The SNPRM proposes to make some changes to part 771 and 774 to account for some of the unique characteristics of rail projects.

This proposed change will ensure that a project undergoing NEPA review through multiple U.S. DOT agencies has one set of rules and regulations to follow. Currently, FRA’s NEPA review regulations are different than FHWA’s or FTA’s. Additionally, the proposed rule change ensures that a record of decision related to NEPA from one U.S. DOT agency is accepted by another U.S. DOT agency. Finally, U.S. DOT is proposing to require that the lead U.S. DOT agency designated to conduct the NEPA review must explicitly include in their NEPA coordination plan “participating agencies that are responsible for providing input within their agency’s special expertise or jurisdiction” and reach an agreement between the two agencies on the timeline for that secondary agency to provide their input. This requirement will ensure that necessary agencies have a chance to give their input with respect to the NEPA review but that there is a concrete timeline for that review to take place.

The practical effect is that as a result of this rulemaking, there should be a “single NEPA document that can be used for all Federal permits and reviews for a project to the maximum extent practicable and consistent with Federal law.” That should speed up environmental reviews without harming the intent of NEPA, leading to faster timelines for the construction infrastructure projects without causing environmental harm.

T4America Statement on Senate Commerce AV START Markup

On Wednesday, October 4, the Senate Commerce Committee marked up and approved the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act. Beth Osborne, senior policy advisor for T4America, offered this statement in response.

“We share the committee’s enthusiasm about the potential of automated vehicles (AVs) to reduce fatalities and improve access to necessities for all Americans. However, today’s committee markup is emblematic of what has been troubling about this entire process — it has all been too rushed and the process is too opaque.

“The committee is not listening to nor addressing the concerns expressed by city and state leaders who are ultimately responsible for the roads where these vehicles will operate. The preemption language in this bill challenges their ability to regulate their own roads and, without requirements to share any data on their operations, creates a climate of secrecy around AV testing or deployment. This approach is unlikely to win the public trust, which will be necessary to successfully bring these vehicles to market.

“Neither this bill nor its House counterpart is a product of methodical policymaking, gathering robust feedback from everyone involved, and forging a true bipartisan consensus. It’s more the product of an unfortunate lack of interest on a critical issue that could reshape our towns and cities.

“Local and state transportation leaders stand ready to address these problems before work on the bill is completed — or whenever the auto industry and Congress realize the confusion and problems this approach creates.”

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Senate revises bill on automated vehicles but fails to address the primary concerns of cities and states

On Wednesday, October 4, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act. A revised draft was released by the committee on September 29.

In numerous meetings with the Senate Commerce Committee, staff have agreed with us that cities and states must maintain their existing authority to manage the operation of all vehicles on their road networks. Unfortunately, the revised draft introduced last week does not reflect this.

“We appreciate that the committee heard our concerns on preemption, but they merely replaced their preemption language with language from the House bill, which still puts just as many cities and states at risk of losing control of their roads,” said Beth Osborne, Senior Policy Advisor of Transportation for America. “That House bill, and the preemption language within it, was hastily assembled and rushed through a House committee overnight with no time for comment or thoughtful debate from city or state transportation officials or law enforcement.”

The Senate bill restricts local governments from passing or enforcing any laws that are an “unreasonable restriction on the design, construction, or performance” of an automated vehicle. Without defining what “unreasonable restriction” or “performance” means, the language enables an endless series of lawsuits and leaves the management of our roads in the hands of judges.

Automated vehicles should be tested in real-world situations, but proper management and public safety should be paramount. This requires manufacturers sharing information on how these vehicles are operating and where they are struggling to keep up with the rules of the road with the agencies charged with managing those roadways. Merely requiring a publicly available safety report once a year does not cut it. Without access to real-time or near-real-time data on how these vehicles move throughout our streets, city and state governments as well as law enforcement will be unable to enforce their laws or adapt their infrastructure designs and investments in a timely way to ensure these vehicles have the necessary tools on the road to operate safely.

“Automated vehicles have the potential to make our cities safer, more efficient, and more economically productive, and cities want to do their part to bring this new technology to our streets,” said Linda Bailey, Executive Director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). “The legislation as currently written hinders this progress — weakening instead of strengthening cities’ and states’ ability to engage with private partners on safe operations and data sharing.”

This new technology is exciting and poised to have dramatic impacts on the safety of our streets in the long-term. But in the short-term, we need to give our cities and states — where these vehicles are operating — the authority and information to ensure their safety. Getting this right requires tackling challenges head on, and we’re disappointed the committee has chosen to run away from them.

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About T4A

Transportation for America is an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from communities across the country, united to ensure that states and the federal government step up to invest in smart, homegrown, locally-driven transportation solutions — because these are the investments that hold the key to our future economic prosperity. Visit t4america.org

About NACTO

NACTO is an association of 55 North American cities formed to exchange transportation ideas, insights, and practices and cooperatively approach national transportation issues. The organization’s mission is to build cities as places for people, with safe, sustainable, accessible, and equitable transportation choices that support a strong economy and vibrant quality of life. To learn more, visit nacto.org.

Contact: Alexander Engel
National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)
alex@nacto.org

Contact: Steve Davis
Transportation for America
202-971-3902
Steve.davis@t4america.org

Take action on Senate automated vehicles bill that would would leave cities, states, and the public in the dark

Congress is on the cusp of passing the very first federal law to regulate automated vehicles (AVs). Unfortunately, a Senate committee has produced a law that would leave cities, states, and the public in the dark while handing the keys to the industry.

Flickr photo by Ed and Eddie. Source

The AV START bill could put hundreds of thousands of AVs on the roads, preempt states and cities from having any oversight on how those vehicles operate, and keep the public from accessing any of the valuable data about where and how they are operating.

The Senate Commerce Committee will be considering this bill on Wednesday, October 4. Write your Senators today and urge them to reconsider and improve their approach.

Thus far, Congress has hastily legislated on a complicated issue with impacts that will be felt for decades primarily by people and groups who were never invited into the room.

Any state and local laws for AVs could be at risk if they are found to be an “unreasonable restriction” — vague language that will almost certainly lead to costly legal battles.

For example, if a city wants to prevent empty AVs from endlessly circling their streets or keep them from operating on certain streets, they could be left with no recourse for setting local policies to do so.

When it comes to safety, cities (and others) also need access to data on these vehicles’ performance on their own streets. Is there a particular intersection that’s more dangerous than others for automated vehicles? They’ll have no way to find out on their own.

While the bill does require manufacturers testing AVs to report all crashes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and produce a publicly available annual safety report, there are no requirements for sharing more robust real-time or near-real-time data with cities or states. This ensures that no one other than the private companies doing the testing will be able to learn anything from the massive amounts of data produced by the tests.

In order to create more hospitable conditions for all modes of travel — especially AVs — cities and states need these data to inform and optimize their planning, policymaking and operations to prepare for the coming wave of automation.

Take action and tell the Senate that they need to do better — this issue has the potential to dramatically reshape our cities in profound ways.

Federal approach to regulating automated vehicles described as a “giveaway to the industry”

After producing draft legislation for discussion last week, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing this week about automated vehicles (AVs). Some of the witnesses’ testimony highlighted the continued problems with the committee’s approach that would hand the oversight keys to automakers and manufacturers, kick cities to the curb, and threaten the safety of millions.

The hearing, “Transportation Innovation: Automated Trucks and our Nation’s Highways,” was intended to inform the Senate’s approach to the inclusion of commercial vehicles in their AV legislation. But the hearing also highlighted many of the larger issues about the proposed framework to manage all automated vehicles — commercial or not — and much of the discussion focused on the need to get the framework right before setting it into law.

It’s hard to imagine they’ll get it right with the private sector in charge.

Ken Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters, raised this point throughout the hearing, noting the private sector and auto industry’s long history of skirting rules and putting consumers at risk, and warned that we “can’t trust the industry to guide the process to safety based on their past behavior.”

The hearing came the same week that the National Highway Traffic Safety Association released new guidance on automated vehicles, guidance which Senator Richard Blumenthal described as “anemic,” and “a giveaway to the industry,” adding that the introduction of these vehicles “could result in lives lost unless we have enforceable rules to protect the public.”

Not only have both the House and Senate ignored the important role of state and local governments in the process of testing vehicles, but their approach threatens state and local ability to regulate their own roads. From our statement about the Senate draft:

The bill strips states and local governments of the authority to manage the vehicles on their roadways and leaves them without the tools to deal with problems already arising during the testing and deployment of automated vehicles. Cities work to make streets safe places for all users and are not willing to endanger citizens for the sake of innovation with no levers of control. For example, if the safety report showed that a certain type of LIDAR system is incapable of reading a stop sign if vandalized with graffiti, or confused by bike lanes if painted a certain shade of green, state or local authorities — who own and maintain almost all roadways — would have no ability to intervene.

Public confidence in AVs will be vital to their adoption, and it’s hard to imagine how they could ever be deployed effectively by hiding their safety performance from the public and preventing the managers of our roadways and public safety officers from having a role in managing them.

“States and municipalities have to be at the table, whether we’re talking about lane markings and how we have systems that interact with each other, or about the rules of the road we set,” Deborah Hersman, President of the National Safety Council, said in the hearing. “We need to bring all parties in the loop and state and local leaders need to have a role in that.”

The committee has asked for all comments on the draft discussion to be submitted by the end of the day today (Friday). Based on how quickly they’ve moved so far, we expect them to take comments, produce a revised draft, and prepare for a markup soon. In the meantime, we’re continuing to push the committee to consider the issues that we and their witnesses raised in the past week and produce a bill that provides all levels of government with the tools to ensure the safety of these vehicles on our roads and in our communities.

Senate automated vehicles legislation would jeopardize the safety of millions and leave cities and states on the side of the road

For Immediate Release
September 12, 2017

Transportation for America (T4A) and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) issued the following response to the released Senate discussion draft of the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act from Chairman John Thune (SD) and Senator Gary Peters (MI).

We support the deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) and are pleased to see Congress supporting the effort of automakers to test and improve this technology. The best way to do this is to ensure that the testing is done with full transparency and in cooperation with the cities and states that own and manage the roads on which AVs are operating. Sadly, this legislation does not do that.

Protecting public safety is the fundamental role of government and has been the stated priority of the Commerce Committee for regulating automated vehicles, but the staff discussion draft circulated last Friday by Chairman Thune and Senator Peters puts business interests above the basic safety of Americans.

No one wants to see a patchwork of regulations that stifle innovation, but the unified federal framework is a poisoned chalice: it provides no mechanism for local, state, or even federal safety regulators to hold companies accountable for the safety of their vehicles or technology.

The bill’s requirement of a safety report is just an exercise: the draft bill actively prevents USDOT or any local government from taking any action based on a review of that data. If the safety report showed that a particular fleet of AVs was frequently blowing through red lights, even the Secretary of Transportation would have no recourse to require changes or to pull the cars from the road.

The bill strips states and local governments of the authority to manage the vehicles on their roadways and leaves them without the tools to deal with problems already arising during the testing and deployment of automated vehicles. Cities work to make streets safe places for all users and are not willing to endanger citizens for the sake of innovation with no levers of control. For example, if the safety report showed that a certain type of LIDAR system is incapable of reading a stop sign if vandalized with graffiti, or confused by bike lanes if painted a certain shade of green, state or local authorities — who own and maintain almost all roadways — would have no ability to intervene.

Automated vehicles will be deployed at the state and local level. But the draft legislation kicks cities and states to the curb by both failing to require any inclusion of state or local representatives on a new federal Highly Automated Vehicles Technical Safety Committee and by stripping away key means of local government control.

AVs should be tested in real-world situations, but proper management and public safety should be paramount. This draft legislation would put hundreds of thousands of untested vehicles on our streets without giving state and local governments critical information about where and how those vehicles are operating.

Understanding vehicle movement at the corridor level provides immense value for governments and citizens. Data on vehicle collisions and near-misses allows cities to proactively redesign dangerous intersections and corridors to ensure safety for all street users. Real-time data on vehicle speeds, travel times and volumes have the potential to inform speed limits, manage congestion, uncover patterns of excessive speeds, evaluate the success of street redesign projects and ultimately improve productivity and quality of life. But without access to these data, city and state governments will be blind to the impacts of emerging transportation technologies, how their construction and management of their roadways interacts with those technologies and unable to determine their own destinies.

Protecting public safety is the fundamental role of government, but this bill would actively prevent federal, state and local authorities from creating safe conditions for the testing and deployment of automated vehicles. Building public confidence should be in the industry’s self-interest and if the public doesn’t believe AVs are safe, this technology will go nowhere. It is hard to imagine how the deployment of AVs could be promoted effectively by hiding from the public their safety performance and preventing the managers of our roadways and public safety officers from having a role in managing them.

Instead of creating a framework that unlocks the transformative potential of this technology and allows cities and states to experiment and innovate to tackle their most pressing challenges, this draft puts business interests first, handcuffs transportation leaders and revokes their ability to keep our streets and residents safe by deploying automated vehicles in a thoughtful manner.

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About T4A

About NACTO

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 8th

Stories You May Have Missed

As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes news articles to inform your work. Check out a list of stories you may have missed last week.

The House of Representatives on Friday cleared a short-term measure to avoid a government shutdown and raise the debt limit through December 8th, ratifying a deal President Trump struck with Democrats. (The Hill)
Earlier in the week, President Trump reached a deal with Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to provide Hurricane Harvey relief and raise the debt ceiling and extend government funding until December 8^th. (Politico)
The House of Representatives began consideration of a package of 8 appropriations bills this week, including the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill. (See T4America’s blog post and amendment tracker here)
The House of Representatives rejected a proposed amendment to the THUD appropriations bill that would have defunded Amtrak. (The Hill)
Because of Hurricane Irma, the House delayed final passage of the appropriations package until the week of September 11^th. (Politico)
House Republicans still lack the votes to pass their draft House budget, putting at risk their efforts to pass tax reform. (The Hill)

Summary of FY2018 Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development “THUD” Appropriations Bill

On Thursday July 27, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is funded at $19.47 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2018. This is $978 million above the FY2017 enacted level. The Committee’s priority is placed on programs that improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of the transportation system.

The Senate Appropriations Committee proposes to increase funding for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program after the President and the House Appropriations Committee proposed to eliminate it. Instead, the bill increases funding to $550 million – $50 million more than the FY 2017 funding level. The bill also reserves 30 percent of the awards for rural areas.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Susan M. Collins in her opening statement at the markup highlighted that TIGER is a proven program that funds competitive grants for state and local road, transit, port, and railroad construction projects. “Last year, 585 applicants from all 50 states and territories requested nearly $9.3 billion in assistance, demonstrating the need for and popularity of this program. Only 40 of these applications could be funded,” said Chairman Collins.

The committee expressed strong support for the TIGER program in the report that accompanies the appropriations bill and required the Trump Administration to apply the criteria used in FY2016 to the FY2018 round of TIGER.

The Senate bill allocates a total of $2.133 billion for the transit Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program, which is $279.7 million less than the FY 2017 enacted level and $900.9 million more than the President’s budget request. Of the $2.133 billion, 1.008 billion is set aside for New Starts projects that already have full funding grant agreements (FFGAs), and $454 million is reserved for new New Starts FFGAs. Additionally, $149.9 million is reserved to complete funding for previously funded Small Starts projects that do not have signed agreements, and $168.4 million is reserved for new Small Starts projects. Finally, $200 million is set aside to cover the cost of the two existing Core Capacity projects, and $145.7 million is reserved for new Core Capacity FFGAs.

The Senate Bill includes language directing the USDOT Secretary to “continue to administer the Capital Investment Grant Program in accordance with the procedural and substantive requirements of” the law, including directing the “Secretary to continue to advance eligible projects into project development and engineering in the capital investment grant evaluation.” Basically, when CIG projects become eligible to move along in the pipeline, this language requires the Secretary to advance them. The Committee included this language in response to the Administration’s budget proposal that stated it would only fund transit projects with an existing FFGA.

The appropriations bill also fully funds the highway, transit, and safety programs authorized by the FAST Act and funded through the Highway Trust Fund. The bill includes $45 billion for the Federal-aid Highways Program. In addition, the bill continues to grant State Departments of Transportation permission to repurpose old, unused earmarks for important infrastructure projects.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is funded at $1.97 billion, $122 million above the FY 2017 enacted level. The bill provisions include $358.4 million for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and $1.242 billion for Amtrak’s National Network, which is enough funding to continue service for all current routes. The bill also provides $250.1 million to fund FRA’s safety, operations, research and development activities. The Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Grants Program is funded at $92.5 million, of which $35.5 million is for initiation or restoration of passenger rail. The Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Grants program is funded at $26 million and the Restoration and Enhancement Grants program is funded at $5 million.

Additionally, the committee made a major statement to the administration about policy in its appropriations report (page 8 and 9) and the importance of stable and robust transportation funding.

“The President’s request includes $200,000,000,000 to leverage $1,000,000,000,000 in new investment in the Nation’s physical infrastructure. This proposal is expected to include policy, regulatory, and legislative proposals, ranging from changes to existing programs, to the creation of new programs and initiatives to reshape how the Federal government invests, permits, and collaborates on infrastructure. To date, no such proposal has been submitted to the Committee. While the Committee fully supports additional spending for our Nation’s infrastructure, it strongly disagrees with the Administration’s assertion that providing Federal dollars for infrastructure has created, ‘an unhealthy dynamic in which State and local governments delay projects in the hope of receiving Federal funds.’”

“Without Federal investment in infrastructure, particularly in our nation’s highway network and transit systems, the ability to move freight across the country and the free movement of people between States with vastly differing abilities to fund infrastructure would be compromised. The Committee is also concerned that the Administration does not realize that State and local governments, through the statewide transportation improvement program planning process, already determine the “right level–and type–of infrastructure investment needed for their communities.” More troubling is the fact that the budget request assumes that after fiscal year 2020, highway trust fund outlays will be at levels that are supported with existing tax receipts, resulting in an outlay reduction of $95,000,000,000 over fiscal years 2021-2027. The Administration’s approach is dangerously close to support for devolution of Federal funding provided by the Highway Trust Fund, an idea the Committee strongly opposes.”

Overall, the bill protects funding for the programs that T4America believes are crucial to our transportation system like TIGER and the Capital Investment Grant Program. This bill is a great step to ensure that key infrastructure and transit programs will be funded accordingly, and will continue to serve the nations most vulnerable persons.

Stories You May Have Missed: June 19th – June 23rd

Stories You May Have Missed

U.S. Conference of Mayors attendees are “hungry for details about Trump’s infrastructure plan.” (Marketplace)
The Senate Commerce Committee has rejected the White House’s proposal to privatize the U.S. air-traffic control system. (The Hill)
Autonomous vehicle bills are on the horizon. (The Hill)
“States raising gas taxes to fund transportation improvements.” (Fox News)
Inside Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s resignation. (NY Times)

Do our federal transportation priorities match the rhetoric we use to justify more spending?

With the Trump administration readying both an annual budget and discussing a possible large infrastructure package, Transportation for America yesterday urged a key Senate subcommittee to protect the investments in programs that promote innovation, encourage collaboration and maximize benefits for local communities.

Photo via WSDOT/Flickr httpswww.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/8670279118

The President’s first budget will almost certainly propose big cuts to discretionary spending programs. While the bulk of annual federal transportation spending is sourced from the highway trust fund and should be more insulated from these cuts, discretionary cuts would fall disproportionately on funding for new transit construction (New and Small Starts) and multimodal and local priority projects (TIGER).

House and Senate appropriators will have two decisions to make: a) whether to appropriate the amounts prescribed by the current long-term transportation law (the FAST Act) for the core programs, which is uncertain as well, and, b) how much to allocate for these other discretionary transportation programs.

As expected, with the heads of a few national trade groups also testifying yesterday alongside T4America before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, there was the usual rhetoric about America’s “crumbling” infrastructure amidst calls to invest more money overall in the federal transportation program.

And while T4America agrees on the need for greater levels of overall investment, T4A senior policy advisor Beth Osborne (pictured above) differentiated our overall position.

“As everyone testifying today will say,” she noted in her opening remarks, “we have great need to invest in our transportation system, including our roads, bridges, and transit systems. However, Transportation for America also believes that our problems run far deeper than just an overall lack of funding.”

When we have these discussions about the need to invest in infrastructure — especially in Washington — all sorts of ominous numbers are thrown around. Tens of thousands of deficient bridges. Pavement condition that’s worsening by the day. Backlogs of neglected maintenance and repair.

But where does the money go once we increase transportation spending and dole it all out to the states? Beth Osborne explained:

In fact, while we talk about the need for more funding to address our crumbling infrastructure, that is not necessarily where the funding goes. A 2014 report conducted by Smart Growth America called “Repair Priorities” found that between 2009 and 2011 states collectively spent $20.4 billion annually to build new roadways and add lanes. During that same time, states spent just $16.5 billion annually repairing and preserving the existing system, even while roads across the country were deteriorating. As we talk about large infrastructure packages, it’s only fair to ask that the priorities of our transportation program more closely match the rhetoric we use to justify more spending on it.

Why do we keep spending hefty sums on new roads and new lanes while repair backlogs get ignored? One reason is that transportation and development decisions are rarely well coordinated and we end up trying to address bad land use decisions with more transportation spending, and vice versa.

Greater federal investment in infrastructure welcomed, but must be paired with increases in accountability and transparency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

After the release of the Senate Democrats’ $1 trillion infrastructure proposal, Beth Osborne, Senior Policy Advisor for Transportation for America, released this statement:

“It’s encouraging to see the Democrats in the Senate respond to President Trump’s charge to beef up America’s investment in infrastructure spending by advancing their own proposal that is multimodal, increases competitive funding, and provides more money for main streets across the country.

“But funding alone will not truly solve the complex problems facing our country’s transportation networks. We increased federal transportation spending year-over-year for at least two decades, yet we still ended up in this situation today with growing backlogs of repair needs, increasing fatalities on our roads, and residents with fewer access to jobs and opportunities than before.

“We do need more infrastructure investment, but we also need that investment to be transparent, accountable and bring the greatest benefits for each dollar spent. This proposal does not specify how the funding would be distributed or how transportation agencies would be held accountable for actually bringing their roads, bridges or transit systems into a state of good repair. How can taxpayers be certain that we wouldn’t just continue a long pattern of neglecting our growing repair needs while building yet more things that come with additional years of maintenance costs?

“That said there are some notable positives worth highlighting in the proposal.

“This proposal directs more than $100 billion directly into the hands of local governments to invest in their priority projects — a move worth applauding. Local leaders in cities and towns of all sizes are the ones who know their specific needs best, but they’re often not even at the table when decisions are made in state offices about where and how to invest. The innovative competitive TIGER grant program — one of the few sources that locals can access directly — doubles to at least $1 billion per year.

“Allocating $200 billion to ‘Vital Infrastructure Projects’ correctly recognizes that we have scores of large projects that are often mega-regional in scope, with significant benefits for the national economy. But it also raises several important questions: who determines which projects to fund? Is this a return of congressional earmarking? Will the most cost-effective large projects be selected, or the projects with the greatest political heft?

“The elephant in the room is the funding source for this ambitious package. Congressional leaders used every accounting maneuver in the book to avoid dealing with our nation’s bankrupt highway trust fund in order to pass a five-year transportation authorization that didn’t cut spending back in 2015. How do they propose to pay for this ambitious investment package?

“Without addressing that difficult question head-on, it’s challenging to fully assess this proposal.”

A large congressional delegation asks USDOT to improve the proposed congestion rule

Updated 7/28 11:50 a.m. Earlier this week, a large group of senators and representatives sent a letter to USDOT Secretary Foxx, requesting that USDOT change a flawed proposed rule for measuring congestion. They asked that USDOT assess the movement of people, rather than vehicles, as a better measure of congestion and also reward the improvements that can come from transit, toll lanes, or encouraging travelers to choose other options like walking or biking.

As we’ve been discussing here for a few months now, a new draft rule from USDOT will govern how states and metro areas will have to measure and address congestion. That proposal as written would define “success” in incredibly outdated ways, and old measures lead to old “solutions,” like prioritizing fast driving speeds above all other modes of transportation and their associated benefits.

The shortcomings in the proposed rule got the attention of some members of Congress, and earlier this week Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) were joined by 64 other members from the House and Senate on a letter to Secretary Foxx about the rule. (19 senators and 48 representatives total.)

From the (Senate) letter: (pdf)

“How we measure performance and outcomes directly affects the choice of investments that will be made. If we focus, as this proposed rule does, on keeping traffic moving at high speeds at all times of day on all types of roads and streets, then the result is easy to predict: States and MPOs will prioritize investments to increase average speeds for cars, at the expense of goals to provide safe, reliable, environmentally-sensitive, multimodal transportation options for all users of the transportation system, despite those goals being stated in federal statute. Encouraging faster speeds on roadways undermines the safety of roads for all road users, as well as the economic vitality of our communities.”

We’re encouraged to see this large group of elected leaders on board with the idea that how we measure congestion matters. It certainly matters for the communities — of all sizes — that they represent, and getting it wrong will have real impacts. In the letter, they note that the proposed rule doesn’t quite line up with some of the stated goals of Secretary Foxx, his Ladders of Opportunity program, and the Every Place Counts Challenge intended to help communities and neighborhoods that have been cut off or isolated by poorly-planned highway projects.

Yet, for far too long our transportation investments have focused solely on moving vehicles through a community rather than to a community, and without regard for the impacts to the community. In the process we have created real barriers for millions of Americans to access essential destinations. These barriers are most present for low-income communities and communities of color.

Nail on the head.

Our streets are about far more than just moving people through a community as fast as possible. They’re community assets and the framework for creating value and economic prosperity, and should be treated like more than just a simple pipe moving one thing quickly all day long.

Note: the House letter is here (pdf)

UPDATE: Representative Earl Blumenauer added his personal thoughts to the release of the letter:

Our federal highway system is stuck in the 1950s. By failing to properly evaluate the billions we spend on road maintenance and construction, we’ve created a transportation system that is unsafe, is increasingly harming the environment despite improving technology, and has left a legacy of racial exclusion and segmented communities. We have to do better. The Department of Transportation has an opportunity to make sure that federal spending can help meet our goals of safety, sustainability, and accessibility. I hope these comments are considered.

And in case you missed it, Senator Tom Carper also wrote a short note about the congestion rule for the T4America newsletter yesterday. (Don’t get our bi-weekly newsletter? Rectify that immediately by signing up right here.)

Our federal transportation system’s ability to move people and goods is key to an efficient and growing economy, which is why it’s critical for the Department of Transportation to focus on the movement of people instead of vehicles in its congestion relief measures. In order to improve the safety of our roads, and build a world-class transportation system that revitalizes our regional economies, we need to invest in innovative congestion relief techniques that facilitate the movement of people without encouraging faster speeds or incentivizing costly highway expansions.

Have you sent a letter to USDOT yet? There’s still time to generate a letter that we’ll deliver on your behalf before the comment period closes in a few weeks. We’ve already delivered 2,400 letters, but we’re aiming for far more.

Send yours today.

Senate transportation appropriations bill adheres to local leaders’ call to fund TIGER, public transit and passenger rail

The annual transportation and housing appropriations bill – known as T-HUD – was approved last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee and contains good news for transportation. The annual spending bill fully funds FAST Act-authorized programs receiving support from the Highway Trust Fund and funds important competitive programs such as TIGER, public transit construction grants, and intercity passenger rail.

Earlier this year, T4America—in partnership with over 170 elected officials and local, civic, and business leaders from 45 states—sent a powerful message to congressional appropriators that the competitive TIGER and New Starts programs are crucial local economic prosperity and competitiveness. The letter urged Congress to include at least $500 million for TIGER transportation grants as well as the full $2.3 billion authorized in last year’s FAST Act for the ‘New Starts’ public transit construction program. Senate appropriators listened and provided $525 million for TIGER and $2.3 billion for New Starts in the FY2017 T-HUD bill.

TIGER

The Senate bill increases funding for the TIGER program by $25 million, for a total of $525 million for FY17, of which $25 million is reserved for planning grants. This is a big win for a couple of reasons.

First, the TIGER competitive grant program is one of the few ways that local communities can apply for and win funds for their priority projects, helping to get smart, locally-supported projects with a high return on investment off the ground. The TIGER competition ensures the best projects receive funds based on merit and cost-benefit analyses, and provides a level of accountability and transparency not currently available in many statewide transportation programs.

Second, TIGER was not even authorized in the five-year FAST Act, making it all the more important that this vital program receive strong support this year.

Public transit

TIGER isn’t the only crucial program up in the air. The federal government’s primary resource for supporting new, locally planned and supported transit expansion projects was up for consideration. The Senate T-HUD bill fully funds the New Starts program in FY17 with $2.3 billion.

Passenger rail

The FAST Act authorized passenger rail programs along with the larger highway and transit authorizations for the first time ever. The Senate T-HUD bill continues support for passenger rail by providing $1.4 billion for Amtrak, and for the first time since 2010, allocating competitive funds for safety, state of good repair for the Northeast Corridor, and operating and capital support for restored or new passenger service throughout the rest of the country. The Senate Appropriations Committee has placed a heavy emphasis on safety and short-line railroads in FY17.

Next Steps

The transportation funding bill now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration, with action likely starting this week. The House has yet to introduce its FY17 T-HUD bill, a measure that could get stalled by disagreement from party leaders over their broader budget blueprint. T4America will continue keeping a close watch as the critical annual FY17 spending bill progresses.

Secretary Foxx questioned at Senate THUD Appropriations hearing

The Senate Transportation, Housing & Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee hosted Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, as well as USDOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel, on Wednesday, March 16 to discuss the department’s FY2017 budget request.

Here are some of the key highlights from the hearing:

Skepticism over a larger, new funding request

The administration’s budget would grow funding for the department to $98 billion in FY17, in part by raising new revenue through a new, $10.25-per-barrel oil fee. Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) opened the hearing with a note of disappointment and incredulity that the administration would submit such a sizable revenue proposal just months after Congress passed the five-year FAST Act and after many years of debate over transportation finance in which the administration declined to offer specific funding options.

Support for TIGER funding

Several members of the committee—including Chairman Collins (R-ME), Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Christopher Coons (D-DE), and John Boozman (R-AR) voiced their support for the TIGER program and the projects it has funded. Sen. Boozman, however, had concerns about the department’s support for applicants and the way it helped strengthen the proposals in from applicants who were not awarded funds. Sec. Foxx spoke to the outreach the department is already doing and noted the success the program has had in funding projects in rural areas.

Support for Amtrak primarily in Northeast Corridor

There was support for Amtrak primarily from the two senators from the Northeast Corridor, Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Christopher Coons (D-DE). They each spoke of the importance of making capital improvements on that corridor. Sen. Reed also sought assurance that the Northeast Corridor Futures project would not realign Amtrak service out of his state.

Metro closure was the only transit topic of conversation

The only discussion of transit in the hearing focused on the emergency shutdown of Washington’s Metrorail system. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), chairman of the full Appropriations Committee, focused her questioning on ways that Congress or the department can further ensure Metro’s safety and improve reliability. Sec. Foxx placed the onus for additional improvement on the local jurisdictions—the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia—to make safety a priority for the agency. He also said the department is looking into ways that it can require open grants to the agency be used for safety purposes.

There was no discussion of Capital Grants (New Starts) or other transit funding.

USDOT want to support all Smart City Challenge applicants

Several members asked how the department is anticipating new technology, especially autonomous vehicles. Sec. Foxx spoke of the innovative ideas submitted through the Smart City Challenge grant program. Though the department will pick just one winner, Foxx said the department plans to advise all of the losing cities on ways they may be able to fund their visions through other, existing funding sources.

USDOT on the way to establishing the Innovative Finance Bureau

In response to a question from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) about P3 financing for roads, Sec. Foxx said the department is well on the way to standing up the National Surface Transportation and Innovative Finance Bureau, a consolidated office for innovative financing created under the FAST Act.

Timing going forward

House Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers has announced that committee will begin consideration of the first of 12 appropriations bills next week and we expect the Senate to proceed on a similar schedule, debating bills through April following the Easter recess. The House will apparently start on these appropriations bills even through consideration of the budget resolution has been postponed two weeks until after the recess. (The budget resolution declares intended top-line spending amounts, while appropriations bills set specific, program-level outlays.)

Senate Commerce Committee considers the (rapidly approaching) autonomous vehicle future

Yesterday the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing with representatives from the autonomous vehicle industry to gather input on the needs and concerns of the rapidly growing industry.

Witnesses were:

Chris Urmson, Director of Self-Driving Cars, Google X
Mike Ableson, Vice President, Strategy and Global Portfolio Planning, General Motors Company
Glen DeVos, Vice President, Global Engineering and Services, Electronics and Safety, Delphi Automotive
Joseph Okpaku, Vice President of Government Relations, Lyft
Mary (Missy) Louise Cummings, Director, Humans and Autonomy Lab and Duke Robotics, Duke University

The key takeaways from this hearing were:

Autonomous vehicle technology is rapidly advancing and is close to market.

Each witness highlighted the strides their own companies have made. The message from all the panelists is that this in no longer an abstraction, but real technology that could very soon be on the road.

Mr. Ableson from GM and especially Mr. DeVos from Delphi focused on market-ready technologies that add semi-autonomous features to vehicles. Certain 2017 model year Cadillacs will feature technology allowing the cars to drive themselves on the highway. DeVos highlighted several crash avoidance and warning systems that will soon be entering the market and praised committee members for including a provision in last year’s FAST Act that adds new safety ratings for such technologies, incentivizing their adoption.

Google’s fully autonomous vehicles are further away, but Dr. Urmson noted that these vehicles have already logged 1.4 million miles in testing.

Despite these impressive advances, there are still significant hurdles to overcome. Dr. Cummings noted the challenges that autonomous vehicles face, for instance, in dealing with rain or other poor weather.

Panelists were concerned about conflicting regulations.

Panelists all expressed concerns about the possibility of a “patchwork” of overlapping or conflicting regulations enacted at the state or local level and requested that the committee and federal regulators such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) steer consistent rules nationwide.

But disagreements about what and how much regulation is appropriate.

While panelists asked the committee to help avoid a patchwork of local regulations, they were reluctant to back any specific federal regulations on the industry, either. Several senators brought but unresolved regulatory challenges. Ranking Member Sen. Nelson (D-FL) struck a cautionary tone and brought up the ongoing recall of Takata airbags of an example of the devastating impact of design defects. Sens. Markey (D-MA) and Blumenthal (D-CT) pushed the panelists on what regulations they would endorse. But under direct questions from Sen. Markey all of the industry representatives would not support any mandatory requirements over safety or privacy, arguing that the industry is evolving too quickly for regulators to keep up. Dr. Cummings, speaking from an academic perspective, cautioned about technology moving to quickly to implementation, but also warned that federal regulators did not have the expertise to keep up with technological developments.

Autonomous vehicles will bring new business models.

Mr. Ableson from GM and Mr. Opaku from Lyft frequently brought up the new arrangement between the two companies which they see as a way to pioneer autonomous vehicles through a growing rideshare market. This strategic move from GM—an effort to move from selling vehicles to selling mobility—shows how disruptive this technology can be. Transportation network companies—especially Uber and Lyft—have already created an entirely new transportation service in only a few years, using existing technology. Adding radically new technology will undoubtedly be transformative.

Autonomous vehicles will be transformative and bring big benefits.

Committee members brought up numerous benefits of autonomous vehicles. The safety benefits could be tremendous, given that nationwide 38,000 people die each year in car crashes and 90% of those involve driver error. Additionally, several senators and the panelists noted the potential to help people with disabilities and others who currently have poor mobility options connect to economic opportunity. In his opening remarks, Chairman Thune (R-SD) noted that the transformation in how Americans get around would also allow cities to reclaim the one-third of their land now devoted to parking, increase vehicle efficiency, and turn time now wasted behind the wheel into productive, quality time.

Even with quick technological development, full implementation could take a long time.

Mr. DeVos of Delphi noted that the average vehicle on the road today is 11 years old, and there are more than 262 million vehicles registered across the country. Mr. Ableson said GM is only designing autonomous vehicles from the ground up and, from their perspective, autonomous retrofits would not be possible. That means even if the first autonomous vehicles are close to the market, it will take a long time for a large portion of the vehicle fleet to be autonomous without bigger changes to how people get around.

Carrying the message of Gulf Coast support for passenger rail up to Capitol Hill

After last week’s inspiring rail trip along the Gulf Coast where we witnessed firsthand the massive support for restoring passenger rail service along the coast, a member of the Southern Rail Commission testified before the Senate’s key rail committee earlier this week to deliver the same message Gulf Coast citizens so passionately presented at each stop last week.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Mayor Knox Ross, the mayor of Pelahatchie, Mississippi and one of the state’s representatives appointed to the tri-state Southern Rail Commission (SRC), came to Washington following last week’s trip to deliver testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee for a previously scheduled hearing on America’s passenger rail system. Note: T4America serves as policy advisors for the SRC. -Ed.

In a refreshingly moving bit of testimony before the eleven committee members present, Mayor Ross shared his experiences from last week and urged the members to build on the groundwork laid by this very committee’s hard work to include smart passenger rail policy in last year’s broader surface transportation bill for the first time in history. (The FAST Act.)

“As our commission has visited communities across the gulf South, we have found the transportation options available to our citizens are becoming more limited and costly,” Mayor Ross told the committee. He noted in his written testimony how other options like air service and intercity buses have scaled back in the last decade in many of the rural communities along the coast, and how citizens have responded to this possibility of having a new connection between cities small and large.

“We saw an amazing outpouring of support in every city. …They just want an opportunity. Every city turned out. They’re looking for a hand up and saw Amtrak service as that opportunity,”

Just like the other local officials we spoke to, Mayor Ross sees this passenger rail connection as a powerful economic development tool for these Gulf Coast cities, small and large.

“We’re gearing toward connecting our smaller cities to our larger ones and giving these cities the opportunity to compete. All the cities along this route see the economic development potential of the train,” he said, drawing the same parallel to the interstate system that we did in our second post on the trip. “We invested in the national interstate system years ago and saw tremendous economic development, but now we’re having to put more money than ever into it with diminishing returns as we add lanes. Every modest investment in passenger trains across this country can create large economic development opportunities in all these cities.”

The impact of last week’s trip wasn’t lost on the outgoing Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, who also testified Tuesday. “I think the excitement you saw last week is dramatic evidence of just how much we can bring to those towns – and how deeply they appreciate it,” he said.

“We all have an interest in ensuring that Amtrak continues to be as effective as possible, and that the American people in all regions of the country receive the passenger service they deserve. …The respective needs wherever you are in this network, for state corridors, long distance services, and the northeast corridor, and unifying those interests here in congress and across the country is critically important,” Mr. Boardman said.

Before the testimony began, the committee showed the short movie about the trip that T4America produced.

Mayor Ross followed up with perhaps the most powerful observation from the trip; the one was that stuck in the heads of many of the people we talked to along the way.

“One thing I hope you saw in that film….you saw black, white, republican, democrat. This is a bipartisan issue that we can all back and all agree on, an issue that can help bring our country together.”

Though Congress passed a transportation bill, funding for key programs still up in the air

Though Congress passed a five-year transportation bill back in December, the fate of many important transportation programs will still be decided in Congress’ appropriations process this year. Among them is one of the few ways that local communities can directly receive funding for smart projects.

Tiger Map

The TIGER competitive grant program is one of the few ways that local communities of almost any size can directly receive federal dollars for their priority transportation projects. Unlike the overwhelming majority of all federal transportation dollars that are awarded via formulas to ensure that everyone gets a share, regardless of how they plan to spend it, TIGER projects compete against each other and are selected on their merits to ensure that each dollar is spent in the most effective way possible.

This competition spurs innovation, leverages federal funding by matching it with greater local dollars and awards funding to projects that provide a high return on investment. Choosing projects based on their potential benefits is exactly the direction that transportation spending needs to move in, and we need to ensure that this vital program continues.

Because TIGER was not even authorized in the five-year FAST Act and therefore wholly lacks any certainty of funding, congressional appropriators play an incredibly important role in deciding once again how much funding to provide for TIGER (and other key transportation programs) in the coming year. We want to ensure that the Senate’s key committee begins the process by providing at least the full $500 million they’ve provided in the past.

Members of Congress need to hear from you today. Do you represent a city, county, metro planning organization, or other group? We’re looking for these sorts of groups to sign a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of these programs. (We are not targeting individual letters at this time.)

But TIGER isn’t the only crucial program that appropriators will decide in the coming weeks of 2016. The federal government’s primary resource for supporting new, locally-planned and supported transit expansion projects is also up in the air. The New and Small Starts programs have facilitated the creation of dozens of new or extended public transportation systems across the country, awarded competitively to the best projects.

Sound Transit’s LINK light rail on the Seattle-SeaTac line. LINK is being expanded by a combination of local funds approved by voters and federal New Starts funds.

Under this program, FTA awards grants on a competitive basis for large projects that cannot traditionally be funded from a transit agency’s annual formula funds. Congress already recognized the importance of this program in the FAST Act when they increased its authorization by $400 million for this fiscal year.

But now we need to ensure that the federal appropriators actually provide that level of funding here in the critical moment.

You may have seen the news of President Obama’s budget being released a few weeks ago, which asked for $1.2 billion more for these transit capital grants compared to what was in the FAST Act. While the President makes a request and Congress actually makes the budget, that list of transit projects included in the President’s budget does show which projects would be in front of the queue if Congress comes through with the money this year or next.

That list included Indianapolis’ ambitious plan for a new north-south bus rapid transit line through the city from the suburbs on one side to the other, an expansion of Seattle’s LINK light rail system that will be supported by new local revenues approved on the ballot late last year, and projects to add new capacity to Chicago’s strapped Red Line.

Both of these critical programs — TIGER and transit grants — provide unique, cost-effective, and innovative solutions that also leverage private, state, and local investment to solve complex transportation and spur economic development.

Do you represent a city, county, metro planning organization, or other local/state group? We’re looking for those groups to sign a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of these programs. Find out more here. (We are not targeting individual letters at this time.)

Help make TIGER roar in this year’s budget

With the multi-year transportation bill is behind us, Congress is currently considering an annual transportation spending bill with $600 million for the competitive TIGER grant program — an increase of $100 million over existing funding amounts. We need to support it this week as Congress finalizes a new budget to carry us into next year.

The incredibly popular TIGER grant program is one of the only ways that local communities like yours can apply for and win funds from the federal government for important priority projects of almost any kind, helping to get the best locally-supported projects with a high return on investment off the ground. Because it was not permanently authorized in the FAST Act, TIGER is subject to budget battles each year, and this year is no different.

Can you urge your representatives in Congress to pass an appropriations bill with the proposed $600 million in TIGER grant funding, in addition to preserving other key transportation programs?

Whether for new multimodal passenger rail stations in Normal and Alton, Illinois to take advantage of improved passenger rail connections between Chicago and St. Louis, an overhaul of the downtown street network in Dubuque, IA to expand the tax base by $77 million, or an improvement to the West Memphis port to boost cargo capacity by 2,000 percent with only a $10.9 million award, the competitive TIGER program ensures the best projects receive funds, and provides a level of accountability and transparency not currently available in many statewide transportation programs.

In just the past few years, the House has proposed to cut TIGER funding entirely or add restrictions so that transit, bike and pedestrian and multimodal projects can’t apply — only highway projects. This year, the Senate is proposing to keep the program unchanged and add $100 million in funding (the most recent round had $500 million), while the House proposed to slash it to just $100 million.

In addition to TIGER funding, we’re supporting more funding for new transit construction and the Senate levels for Amtrak funding. Communities all over the country are clamoring to expand transit and passenger rail service to meet booming demand and it’s not the time to reduce funding for those programs.

We are counting on your vocal support to ensure that Congress protect and preserve funding that local communities count on in this spending bill to keep the government open and functioning past this Friday.

Send a message to your members of Congress today and let them know that these issues matter to you and your community.