Republican Transportation Bill Seeks Rural Investments, Curbs in Regulation

Unlike the White House and Senate Republican plans, the legislation from House Republicans is focused only on surface transportation programs, which Congress must periodically reauthorize. Separate legislation from House Republicans addresses wastewater infrastructure, for example, an element of both the White House and Senate GOP plans.

Rep. Sam Graves (R., Mo.), the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the bill laid out GOP priorities in the infrastructure negotiations.

“I strongly believe that the path to improving America’s infrastructure is through partnership—not partisanship. Republicans want to work together on bipartisan infrastructure solutions, but in order to reach that goal, key principles must be addressed in this process,” he said.

Beyond the funding, which the Republicans said would be a 32% increase from current levels, the legislation would also limit federal regulations on new infrastructure investments, capping the time allowed for environmental reviews. It would also grant oversight of more infrastructure projects to state governments and create a new office focused on rural investment, among other steps.

The bill doesn’t include provisions for covering the cost of the spending, a central issue in the infrastructure negotiations and a task left to lawmakers on the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate. The House Republicans do call for the creation of a national pilot program for a vehicle-miles-traveled tax, an idea that Republicans have pushed as a way to collect fees from electric vehicles. The legislation tasks the Transportation Department with testing how to track the miles a vehicle travels.

Write to Andrew Duehren at [email protected]