When Members of Congress submitted their priorities for the next transportation bill, they asked for what their districts need: more reliable funding for regional priority projects, safety funding, bridge investments and more. As leaders on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08) and Rep. Rob Bresnahan (PA-08) partnered to introduce a bipartisan bill that could deliver reliable transportation investment in every community in America – H.R. 7437 – Bridges And Safety Infrastructure for Community Success Act (BASICS Act).
Support for H.R. 7437 BASICS Act
The National League of Cities is strongly supportive of this legislation to help deliver more transportation funding to every region in the country reliably, every year. Through our Local Officials in Transportation (LOT) coalition, NLC has joined with seven of the nation’s leading local and regional governments organizations to support H.R. 7437 — representing more than 25,000 individual counties, cities, towns, planning agencies and regional economic development organizations across the United States. We also have the strong support of 75 state associations representing the views of all 50 states (PDF).
How BASICS Supports Communities’ Priority Transportation Projects
- Support Local Control to Deliver Regional Priority Projects Faster: Congress directs each metropolitan planning organization (MPO) to create a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) of locally selected priority projects in their region to meet federal transportation performance goals. Congress can accelerate delivery of regional priorities desired by their communities and local businesses by increasing the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) formula program. STBG is the most flexible transportation formula program, so directing an additional $5B in funding to this program gives regions and states more flexible transportation funding and greater ability to deliver projects for every Congressional district.
- Invest in Local Bridges: The bill keeps up the effort to fix bad bridges by retaining the Bridge Formula Program and focusing on both state and locally owned bridges. This allows bridges in the worst conditions in the system to have access to federal improvement funds. Under H.R. 7437, states where local governments own a large share of the bridges in poor condition would receive a higher portion of funding dedicated specifically to improving those locally-owned bridges
- Keep Focus on Road Safety: America loses 100 lives on roads each day, so there is no excuse for states to transfer funding out of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). HSIP should also increase to $3B to meet this road safety challenge. In order to ensure that safety projects are completed on both local and state roads, 25 percent of HSIP funding should be delivered regionally in urban and rural areas to ensure that local governments are able to access capital funding for safety projects and build on the success of the Safe Streets program.
- Get Clarity and Coordination: Congress directs federal funding and needs to ensure taxpayers know what they are getting for federal investments, how funding is flowing and what is available to their region. More accountability and collaboration within the transportation programs is needed to deliver projects and show results.
- Build Great Plans for Rural and Urban Regions: Invest in rural communities by allowing them to plan strategically through their Rural Transportation Planning Organizations (RTPO) and increase Metropolitan Planning (PL) funding, recognizing that better planning leads to better outcomes and more efficient project delivery in rural and urban areas alike.
“Local governments strongly support the BASICS Act because it streamlines federal investment into regional priorities so we can rebuild local bridges and roads that Americans use every day. We are stronger as a nation when Congress partners with local governments, that helps cities, towns and villages deliver what communities need to keep them moving.”
– Kevin Kramer, Councilmember, Louisville, Ky., and National League of Cities President
This week, NLC and NACo thanked Congress for centering local partnership and safety in the next surface transportation reauthorization by backing the bipartisan BASICS Act, highlighting the critical role local governments play in bettering America’s roads and bridges.
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