CAGTC Members,
Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing titled “Freight Movement: Assessing Where We Are And Where We Need To Go.” Witnesses included Mark Policinski, Chief Executive Officer, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, and on behalf of CAGTC; Tim Parker Jr., Chairman, Parker Towing Company and on behalf of the Waterways Council; Chris Spear, President and CEO, the American Trucking Associations; and David Thomas, Deputy Executive Director of Logistics and Port Operations, Maryland Department of Transportation, Maryland Port Administration.
Should you be interested, Mark Policinski’s full testimony of behalf of CAGTC and OKI online here and CAGTC’s press release is located here. More information as well as a recording of the hearing can be found online here.
A full hearing summary can be found here. Top takeaways from the hearing are:
- Witnesses urged Congress to support direct federal investment in freight infrastructure, noting that current levels of investment are insufficient and that state and local governments as well as the private sector cannot invest alone.
- Witnesses agreed that the freight programs under the FAST Act & MAP-21 were critical steps in the right direction, but each witness noted that more is needed. As a reference point, Mr. Policinski cited USDOT’s statistic that for every $13 dollars of requests for the INFRA (formerly FASTLANE) grant program in FY16, only $1 was available.
- While witnesses agreed that increased investment in freight infrastructure was necessary across all modes, Mr. Spear of ATA called for Highway Trust Fund dollars to be restricted to highways and requested that Congress maintain the existing caps on non-highway spending in the FAST Act freight program. On behalf of CAGTC, Mr. Policinski called for broad modal eligibility and encouraged Congress to lift the caps on non-highway spending.
- All Senators at the hearing acknowledged the importance of freight and the vital need to invest in the system and many said they would work on a bipartisan basis to pass an infrastructure package in 2018.
Thank you!
Katie Cross
Manager, Member Communications & Policy
Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1625 K Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
tradecorridors.org