Senate Begins Consideration of Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

On Monday, August 2, the Senate began consideration of the bipartisan infrastructure bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators and the White House. Text of the legislation was released on Sunday night. The bill includes a five year, $475 billion surface reauthorization comprised of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee-passed bill funding roads and bridges and the Senate Commerce Committee-passed safety and rail title, as well as a negotiated transit title that did not pass the Senate Banking Committee. On top of the surface reauthorization, the bill adds $576 billion in infrastructure funding, including an additional $110 billion for roads and bridges, $66 billion for rail, $39 billion for transit and $25 billion for airports.

The legislation is generally in line with the reauthorization and infrastructure priorities of the NRMCA Government Affairs Committee; it provides robust funding, a five-year reauthorization and is a bipartisan product produced through a bipartisan process. The bill also contains a number of ready mixed concrete priorities, including dedicated funding for bridge repair and replacement, funding for major projects and a provision that will codify many of the Trump Administration’s improvements to federal permitting. More importantly, this legislation does not include many of the possible poison pills included in the House-passed surface bill, such as an increase in mandated minimum truck insurance levels, review of the 2020 Hours of Service rules, restrictions on construction of new capacity and labor policies like the PRO Act.

Click here to view an update on the package hosted by NRMCA’s Government Affairs team. Click here to send your Member of Congress a letter urging them to pass the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.