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

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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.”

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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.”

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