ASA Supports a New Surface Transportation Bill
ASA joined the Transportation Construction Coalition in a letter to House and Senate Transportation Committee Leadership urging their support for a new surface transportation law before the September 30th deadline. Per their letter, “as your committees begin drafting this important legislation, we ask that the following principles guide your efforts:
- Maintain Baseline Investment Levels for Highways, Transit and Multimodal programs: Highway, bridge, and public transit investment levels for Fiscal Year 2026 should, at minimum, be carried forward with inflation adjustments, regardless of the previous budgetary source of these programs. These investments are needed for safety enhancements, infrastructure rebuild, and congestion relief.
- Maximize State Flexibility: The greatness of our nation is found in the distinct attributes of all 50 states. An effective national transportation program must provide states the necessary flexibility and resources through formula funds to meet the unique needs of each community.
- Prioritize Safety for All System Users: Increased investment and research should be directed at improving roadway and work zone safety to ensure the traveling public and construction workers get home safely at the end of each day.
- Reform Project Delivery to Accelerate Construction and Control Costs: Modernization of federal requirements can identify and eliminate environmental review and permitting challenges that too often stand in the way of timely project delivery. Strengthening One Federal Decision to ensure its full utilization and creating a timely waiver process for Buy America while maintaining existing exemptions for certain construction materials will help ensure federal investment is focused on building transportation solutions, not process hurdles. “