A key component of the chamber’s six-point jobs plan is to improve our nation’s infrastructure by passing a multiyear surface transportation bill that will enable communities to plan, hire and prevent layoffs.
The Senate recently unveiled a two-year reauthorization of the highway program, known as MAP-21, that includes much-needed policy reforms and transformational new accountability measures on federal spending.
The bill makes three important changes to transportation policy. First, MAP-21 changes how we finance infrastructure projects. It dramatically expands TIFIA, the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act that provides direct loans, loan guarantees and lines of credit to surface transportation projects at favorable terms. The bill increases TIFIA funding from $120 million to $1 billion a year, giving states a valuable tool to leverage limited resources while providing the private sector a mechanism to increase infrastructure investments.
Second, the legislation reduces bureaucracy that has stalled and plagued infrastructure projects for decades. By streamlining the permitting process for infrastructure projects, the private sector won’t have to worry about projects being stalled or stopped by NIMBY activism, and the private sector will have the certainty needed to create jobs.
Finally, while these provisions will result in short-term job creation, the bill also addresses long-term transportation policy by establishing a national freight program. Our current freight system has failed to keep up with the growth in goods movement, and hampers the ability of businesses to move goods efficiently. Commerce doesn’t stop at state borders, and MAP-21 creates a focused freight program that helps states improve regional and national freight movements, reducing bottlenecks, transportation costs on exports, and making us competitive in a global economy.
MAP-21 gives the private sector the needed funding and project certainty it needs to invest, creating jobs in the short term and making the U.S. more attractive globally.