TOPLINE: House Republicans are focused on rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, tunnels, and highways while Democrats want to pass H.R. 3638, the “Green New Deal and Inflation Transportation Act,” a non-infrastructure messaging bill that focuses more on the Green New Deal instead of improving real infrastructure. In order to finance their far-left agenda, the Biden Administration will raise taxes, which in turn will destroy jobs and hurt American families.   Democrats’ Partisan “My Way or the Highway” Power Grab   While infrastructure bills are typically bipartisan, Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are refusing to work with their fellow Republicans in crafting a surface transportation bill.   This is not the first time that Transportation and Infrastructure Democrats have rejected the opportunity to partner with Republicans on delivering commonsense solutions for the American people.   Last year, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, the INVEST in America Act, but Republicans had another name for it at the time: the “My Way or the Highway Bill.”   Instead of passing a bipartisan bill that would rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and make targeted investments in our communities, House Democrats chose to turn H.R. 2 into a Green New Deal wish list.   Now they’re doing it again with H.R. 3638, the “Green New Deal and Inflation Transportation Act.”     It’s time for Speaker Pelosi to come to the negotiating table and work with House Republicans to pass legislation that addresses infrastructure needs throughout the country, rather than attempt to pass another partisan messaging bill that:  

• Reauthorizes surface transportation programs at $547 billion over 5 years, doubling down on the same mandates, restrictive policies, and costly diversions of infrastructure resources that led to last year’s failure to provide long-term investments in America’s roads and bridges.
• Provides an estimated $276 billion for Green New Deal-related mandates, requirements, and programs, including $31.1 billion in new Green New Deal programs.
• Reduces flexibility for states and non-federal partners to meet their own unique infrastructure needs and instead forces the progressive Green New Deal agenda on federal infrastructure programs.
• Favors urban centers over the infrastructure needs of rural communities that already struggle to compete with urban areas in programs preferred under this bill, such as transit and rail.
  • For example, a program to build electric charging stations that will largely benefit wealthy, urban areas would receive $4 billion compared to the Rebuild Rural grant program, which only receives $1 billion.
• Ignores broad support from labor, business, and transportation community leaders for streamlining the project review process and putting in place reasonable limits and timetables that still preserve environmental protections.
• Bankrupts the Highway Trust Fund by allowing the gas tax to expire in 2023 without providing an alternative revenue stream to pay for infrastructure.

  Republican Leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said it best in his opening statement at H.R. 3638’s markup:   “I hoped that the Speaker had learned that successful legislating depends on partnership – not partisanship – especially after the Majority in the House shrank to just a few members. But I was wrong."     The information below has been provided courtesy of Transportation and Infrastructure Republicans:     Republicans Have a Better Solution: The STARTER Act   In response to Democrats’ “Green New Deal and Inflation Transportation Act,” Transportation and Infrastructure Republicans are again introducing the Surface Transportation Advanced through Reform, Technology & Efficient Review (STARTER) Act.   This bill was designed to meet the United States’ growing transportation needs and was based on similar legislation introduced last year with input from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, House Members, leaders in the transportation community, and other key stakeholders.   The STARTER Act 2.0 provides more than $400 billion over five years for the federal highway, transit, motor carrier, and highway safety programs while cutting red tape to get meaningful transportation improvements completed in a timely manner, making federal investment go farther by actually getting projects done with fewer delays.   In addition, the STARTER Act:  

• Prioritizes proven programs that address core infrastructure functions by improving our core system of highways and bridges, facilitating commerce, and focusing on safety and efficiency.
• Streamlines project delivery by cutting red tape to reduce project delays and costs, putting federal dollars to work faster to improve our transportation system.
• Invests in small and rural communities, where 71 percent of public road mileage runs, and ensures these communities benefit from innovation by guaranteeing a share of program funding for the development of advanced transportation technologies.
• Preserves state decision-making and rejects new federal mandates that make funding choices for localities regardless of actual needs and priorities and allows states to flex funding from urban areas to small urban and rural areas. Currently, states are only able to redirect funding from rural communities to urban areas.
• Stabilizes the Highway Trust Fund for the long-term through a viable replacement to the gas tax by establishing a national Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) pilot program to build upon successful state pilot programs for VMT and alternative revenue collection models.

  The information below has been provided courtesy of Transportation and Infrastructure Republicans:     BOTTOM LINE: House Democrats have put their socialist agenda above American families, workers, and small businesses. By again abandoning bipartisan infrastructure negotiations in favor of partisan legislation that prioritizes Green New Deal mandates over rebuilding our outdated transportation systems, House Democrats have shown they have no interest in legislating and instead choose to prioritize their radical base over American workers and families.