This morning, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) unanimously approved S. 2322, the MAP-21 Reauthorization Act. The
AGC-supported bipartisan bill is the first step towards reauthorizing current transportation funding legislation and identifying the revenue needed to provide for a robust long-term transportation bill.
The legislation – which is the highway portion of the surface transportation reauthorization – provides current funding plus inflation for six years through fiscal year 2020. It also maintains current funding formulas and increases the amount states will receive each year. The annual funding for federal-aid highways is below:
| Fiscal Year |
Annual Funding (in billions) |
| FY 2014 |
$39.99 |
| FY 2015 |
$40.546 |
| FY 2016 |
$41.278 |
| FY 2017 |
$42.092 |
| FY 2018 |
$42.947 |
| FY 2019 |
$43.803 |
| FY 2020 |
$44.699 |
The bill is far less comprehensive than MAP-21, considering many of the reforms in MAP-21 have yet to be implemented. The bill does, however, make some incremental improvements to accelerating project delivery, as well as creating new categorical exclusions. In addition, the bill creates a new multimodal freight formula program, which will start in 2016 and is funded at $1 billion per year over five years. The bill would provide $400 billion annually for projects of national and regional significance, which was initially authorized as part of MAP-21 but was never funded. Also, the bill originally provided $1 billion annually for the TIFIA credit assistance program, but that number was decreased by $250 million as part of an amendment to restore funding for highway research programs. The proposed bill would also direct the U.S. Department of Transportation to carry out a study to examine alternative financing mechanisms to preserve the user-fee structure and maintain long-term Highway Trust Fund solvency. A summary of the bill can be found
here.
The next steps within the Senate are for the other committees of jurisdiction to act. The most critical of the three is the Finance Committee, which has been tasked with finding the revenue to pay for the bill. Through the
Hardhats for Highways campaign, AGC continues to focus on ensuring revenue is available in the Highway Trust Fund to avoid insolvency – projected as early as July of this year – and to provide for the long-term reauthorization of MAP-21 prior to the expiration of the bill on Sept. 30, 2014.
For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.