The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee began consideration of H.R. 7, the American Infrastructure and Infrastructure Act of 2012. Over 100 amendments will be considered. The committee began action at 9:00 a.m. and is still meeting on the legislation. The committee markup was notable for the partisan bickering between the majority and minority over the drafting of the bill. No Democrats have cosponsored the bill.
The bill authorizes approximately $260 billion over five years to fund federal highway, transit and safety programs, maintaining current funding levels. The bill, , would make significant reforms in the environmental review and approval process and give states more flexibility in the use of the funds. Some of the bill highlights include:
- Consolidates or eliminates nearly 70 federal programs
- Eliminates mandates that states spend highway funding on non-highway activities
- Allows states to set their own transportation priorities
- Delegates more project approval authority to states
- Condenses deadlines for federal agency project approvals
- Accelerates the approval process for projects in an existing right-of-way
- Encourages states to partner with the private sector to finance and build projects
- Streamlines the project delivery process and reduces regulatory burdens for rail projects
- Contains no earmarks
- Expands the Transportation Innovative Financing and Investment Act (TIFIA) program to $1 billion per year from its current $122 million annual level
- Provides $2 billion in funding for states to capitalize State Infrastructure Banks
- Allows states to toll new capacity on existing interstates