Senate Bill to Equal Competition for Grant Funding

Senate Bill to Equal Competition for Grant Funding

U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) has introduced a bill (S.3587) to improve the nation’s freight systems by making key investments in ports, railways and intermodal hubs by changing the funding arrangements in the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program, which was created as part of Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). The bill would allow ports and railways to compete for more grant funding from the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program, or INFRA Grants.

“In the U.S., our freight network moves 49 million tons of goods every day, which are worth more than $52.5 billion,” said Carper. “The economic importance of freight movement cannot be overstated, and our ports, railways, and intermodal hubs are a critical part of the multimodal freight system. Regrettably, as a country, we haven’t been making investments in our national transportation system that we need to.”

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-bill-aims-to-boost-spending-on-ports

Last week, Senator Carper introduced S.3587 that would remove the limitations allowing ports and railways to compete more equally for discretionary funds that are currently limited to highway projects.

The bill would support critical freight infrastructure by:

• Removing the cap on INFRA grants to multimodal freight projects;
• Enhancing transparency and administration of the INFRA grant program to ensure that the best projects receive funding;
• Ensuring that safety remains a priority for the INFRA grant program.

You can track this bill (and others) here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3587/titles