Senate Bill Calls for National Freight Policy

A national multimodal freight transportation plan is the goal of a bill introduced today in the U.S. Senate.

Three Democratic senators are sponsoring legislation that would require the federal government to stake out a national policy for freight movement, encouraging multimodal transportation.

The bill hits Capitol Hill as the Obama administration prepares its principles for a long-term reauthorization of the surface transportation bill and Congress remains deadlocked over infrastructure funding.

A national freight transportation policy "that will meet the economic and mobility needs of the 21st century" is long overdue, said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., one of the bill's sponsors.

The FREIGHT Act of 2010 aims to reduce congestion and delays, increase the timely delivery of goods and services, reduce freight-related transportation fatalities and make freight transportation more efficient.

The bill would create a competitive grant program for freight-specific port, freight rail and highway projects, not unlike the TIGER grant program at the Department of Transportation.

It also sets some specific targets: a 10 percent reduction in freight-related accident fatalities in five years and a 40 percent reduction in freight transportation carbon dioxide output by 2030.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., another sponsor of the bill, said it would aid U.S. exporters by maximizing "the way road, rail, sea, air and pipelines interact."

Washington's other senator, Democrat Patty Murray, said the bill would help reduce congestion.

-- Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.