Next transportation bill will mark a return to 'traditional' projects

“If you’re going to use government-owned infrastructure, then you should pay for it,” said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., on his support for an electric vehicle user fee in the next surface transportation bill.

Al Drago/Bloomberg

The next highway reauthorization bill will mark a return to traditional highway and bridges infrastructure and seek new user fees to shore up the insolvent Highway Trust Fund, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo. said Tuesday.

“This is going to be the most important highway bill that we have seen since 1956,” Graves said Tuesday during a sit-down interview with Punchbowl News. “And the reason is, never has the need been so great but the resources so small.”

The current surface transportation law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, expires next September. Crafted under the Biden administration, the IIJA featured dozens of new discretionary grant programs, many of which funded non-traditional infrastructure like bike and pedestrian paths. The transportation legislation, typically authorized every five years, is important for the municipal bond market as many cities and states float bonds to help finance the projects.

“It’s going to be a traditional highway bill — that means building roads and bridges,” Graves said.

The House T&I committee, which oversees the surface transportation reauthorization process, had aimed to release a draft bill by year’s end but the government shutdown has delayed the work, Graves said. The goal now is to have the House mark up the bill early next year and pass it by the spring.

In the Senate, Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, W. Va., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Ted Cruz of Texas, chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will oversee the legislation.

Graves reiterated his support for a new national fee for electric and hybrid vehicles to generate the first new revenue in 30 years for the Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by the federal gas tax. Congress has not raised the federal gas tax since 1993. The HTF was self-supporting from its creation in 1956 until 2008, the Reason Foundation noted in a September report on the next highway bill. Since then, the federal government has transferred $272 billion into the fund to shore it up, Reason said.

“One thing I do believe in is user fees,” Graves said. “If you’re going to use government-owned infrastructure, then you should pay for it.”

Democrats, including House T&I ranking member Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., have said they support an EV fee, and Graves said Tuesday he expects bipartisan support for the reauthorization legislation. The Trump administration’s recent moves to cancel infrastructure projects, however, have rankled some Democrats and could erode their support for the bill.

Graves’ effort earlier this year to attach annual EV and hybrid fees for the Highway Trust Fund to the reconciliation bill failed.

Separately, Graves said he has high hopes for a bipartisan bill reforming the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The measure would restore FEMA to its independent, cabinet-level agency status that’s directly accountable to the president, shift its Public Assistance program from a reimbursement model to a grant model, create project-specific grants and reform permitting.

The legislation gives the states more responsibility for disaster relief, he said.

“We’re going to do upfront project grants and put the states in charge with the federal government’s assistance,” he said. “The more local you can get those recovery efforts, the better they are.”

Graves added that President Trump supports the effort. “The president has been very engaged with this; he knows FEMA is broken,” he said.