Mitch McShitheel Urges Govs To Ignore Federal Infrastructure Guidance: Instead, Build Lots Of Roads

[hatrack]

Top Republican lawmakers are pushing back against the Biden administration’s efforts to encourage states to prioritize climate resilience, public transit and bike paths over highway expansion projects when allocating new infrastructure funding. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Environment and Public Works ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) yesterday sent a letter to the nation’s governors urging them to disregard federal guidance on how states should use funding for road and bridge projects.

The senators accused the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of attempting to enact a “wish list of policies” not outlined in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Congress passed last year with bipartisan support. Both McConnell and Capito voted in favor of the measure. “These policies, such as discouraging projects that increase highway capacity and prioritizing projects that advance non-motorized transportation options, differ from the provisions negotiated and agreed to in the law,” they wrote in their letter. “The FHWA memorandum is an internal document, has no effect of law, and states should treat it as such.”

EDIT

The Transportation Department arm encouraged states to prioritize repairing existing roads and bridges rather than expanding or building new ones. FHWA also asked states to make existing roads accessible to all modes of transportation, not just driving, while ensuring climate resiliency and equity. President Biden’s original infrastructure proposal included this fix-it-first approach, but that language did not survive Senate negotiations and the final bill does not require states to repair existing infrastructure conditions before expanding highways or building new ones.

For many transportation policy advocates, that’s a huge problem. “We want to see states focus on repairing what they have before they build new things, and as they build new things have a plan to maintain it,” said Beth Osborne, who worked at the Transportation Department under President Obama and now serves as director of Transportation for America. “It’s more important to replace dangerous bridges than to build something new.”

EDIT

https://www.eenews.net/articles/republicans-urge-states-to-ignore-infrastructure-guidance/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. we need repairs not expansion

the problem is already too large and almost unreachable

[PortTack]

2. Oh so like the collapsed bridge in PA...just let more of them collapse...kill a few more..

Turtle never fails to grovel lower and lower

[Walleye]

3. Why do they get away with calling our proposed policies a "wish list"?

They’ve got to quit reporting on Republicans as if they want the best for the country. They don’t. They want the worst. Anything to make America look bad is their goal now

[CentralMass]

4. McConnell is 100% scumbag.

[Midnight Writer]

5. More profit for the private sector in building new roads than in maintenance and repair.

I'm sure since Mitch's wife was Transportation Secretary he is well aware of this.

A shame that the Senators of KY and WV, where the rural roads are in great need of repair, are again putting donor's profits ahead of the people they "serve".