BUILD America 250 Act introduced in House

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee yesterday formally introduced the forthcoming five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, named the BUILD America 250 Act, or Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America's 250th (H.R. 8870).

The 1,005-page bill outlines proposed investments in roads, bridges, transit, rail, and highway and motor carrier safety programs. The T&I committee will hold a markup of the bill tomorrow morning, committee officials said in a press release.

"This bill streamlines and reforms key programs that will help improve the safety, efficiency, and long-term reliability of our freight- and passenger-rail systems," said Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Webster (R-Fla.). "It requires real accountability from Amtrak, strengthens oversight of America’s rail network and eliminates wasteful grant programs and project spending to ensure taxpayer dollars are invested responsibly."

Across the five-year plan, the bill would allocate $63.9 billion for rail programs, according to an analysis by the Rail Passengers Association (RPA). That includes $31.1 billion for Amtrak, $1.5 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration, $9.1 billion for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program, $3.7 billion for the Railroad Crossing Safety Improvements and Elimination program and $18.5 billion for the National Intercity Passenger Railroad Partnership program.

Unlike in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, none of the rail funding is guaranteed — the funding is instead subject to annual appropriations, RPA officials said in an analysis.

Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors Executive Director Elaine Nessle in a statement said the bill makes important progress in several areas, but fails in its commitment to freight infrastructure investments.

RPA's analysis of the Amtrak section notes an overall impression that the committee is trying to "nudge the statute back toward profitability-adjacent language," said Sean Jean-Gails, RPA vice president of government affairs and policy. "In conjunction with the lack of guaranteed funding for rail, the message becomes clearer: Amtrak should operate in a way that allows it to operate with minimal ... federal funding."