On May 26, 2021, Jim Burnley was quoted in Logistics Management on the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill issued by the leadership for the United States Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation Infrastructure.
According to the article, the bill establishes a new historic baseline funding level of $303.5 billion, which would be allocated for Department of Transportation (DOT) programs for highways, roads, and bridges, and is 34% higher than the current surface transportation authorization, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The FAST Act was signed into law in 2015 expired in 2020, but was granted a one-year extension by Congress that is set to expire on September 30.
Burnley said that the adoption of a bipartisan package by the Senate EPW Committee represents the first step on a long path for passage of a surface transportation reauthorization bill. “It’s encouraging, but there are many hurdles ahead,” he said. “Those include whether it will be incorporated into a larger infrastructure bill and how, if at all, the increased expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund will be paid for by new revenue provisions, deficit financing or a combination of both.”
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