Washington, D.C. – This week, the National League of Cities (NLC) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) shared a letter with key Congressional leaders announcing the support of 75 state associations of counties and state municipal leagues for the bipartisan Bridges And Safety Infrastructure for Community Success (BASICS) Act (H.R. 7437). The letter also requested inclusion of the bill, led by Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.) and Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), in the next surface transportation reauthorization bill.
Collectively, the organizations represent counties, cities, towns, villages, parishes and boroughs and hundreds of thousands of locally elected officials across 50 states who are critical stakeholders in transportation. As stated in the letter, “Local governments are not nominal partners in the transportation system – we are the first and last mile of nearly every trip made in America, and we are the majority owners of the nation’s transportation systems.”
The letter requests Congress focus on local partnership in their upcoming surface transportation legislation and offers three key recommendations that align with core provisions of the BASICS Act:
1. Strengthen Local Partnerships: Congress should increase opportunities for local input and locally led projects by increasing the suballocated share of Federal-aid Highway Program formula funding, including by growing the size of the flexible Surface Transportation Block Grant Program and adding suballocation requirements to other programs. Additionally, Congress should retain discretionary grant programs like the BUILD program.
2. Put Safety First: Tackling the ongoing roadway safety crisis will require action at all levels of government. Congress should grow the formula Highway Safety Improvement program and suballocate a portion of funds for regions to use on locally selected projects, allowing federal dollars to alleviate known safety risks on local roadways. In conjunction with programs like the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, this would help save lives in communities across the country.
3. Fix Bridges: Locally owned bridges — although they are assets critical to our nation’s competitiveness, safety, security and quality of life — are twice as likely to be classified as being in “poor condition” as compared to state-owned bridges. Congress must continue robust funding for bridge infrastructure but require suballocation of these funds to ensure more support for the locally owned bridges that need investment the most.
In the letter, the organizations agree that these three principles should be well represented in the next surface transportation reauthorization bill, and that the BASICS Act provides a strong, bipartisan framework for how to advance those priorities.
