House begins to map out infrastructure strategy

House lawmakers began mapping out ideas Wednesday to tackle one of President Trump’s chief campaign promises: to rebuild U.S. roads, bridges and airports.

During its first hearing of the new Congress, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee considered input from key businesses and organized labor about a strategy to upgrade the country’s ailing transportation system.

Leaders from FedEx Corporation, Cargill Inc., BMW of North America and Vermeer Corporation outlined the types of projects they think should be targeted in any infrastructure proposal and offered ideas about how to pay for such a package.

{mosads}The hearing was widely bipartisan, and lawmakers called it a good first step in the process. But it remains clear that Congress and the White House still have a long way to go to come up with the necessary cash for new roads, bridges and other public works.

Trump has long promised to inject $1 trillion into the country’s crumbling infrastructure, repeating the pledge in his victory and inauguration speeches. He also personally asked House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to add a rebuilding package to the GOP’s 200-day agenda.

“This election raised the profile of infrastructure in the mind’s of the American people and policymakers,” Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said. “In fact, I believe this is the first time ever the president mentioned the word infrastructure in an inaugural address.”

While Trump is expected be in the driver’s seat on an infrastructure bill, GOP lawmakers overseeing the nation’s transportation programs are expected to have a major role in shaping the legislation.

“We’re going to be working with the administration very closely. They can shape things downtown at the White House, but it’s got to come up here to pass,” Shuster told reporters after the hearing. “We have a significant role in that. We already started to talk to them about the various issues.”

Any infrastructure bill should make fixing existing structures a priority, rather than just focusing on “shiny new objects” such as self-driving cars and high-speed rail, Cargill CEO David W. MacLennan said.

The agribusiness giant said its bottom line depends on the state of U.S. riverways, locks and dams.

“In the last year, our nation’s locks were closed for over 141 [thousand] hours,” McLennan said. “It’s not a sexy topic, but in our business, things like locks, ports, riverways are vital to the agriculture and rural economy.”

The surge of e-commerce is putting an added strain on roads, highways, bridges and airports, according to FedEx, which is in involved in ground, freight, air and maritime shipping. The company supports increases in user fees in order to provide a sustainable funding source for transportation projects throughout the country.

FedEx’s chairman and CEO, Frederick W. Smith, also called for overhauling the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system — a top priority for Shuster.

Vermeer expressed similar frustration over airport delays and advocated for ATC modernization as well.

However, the administration has not yet weighed in on the chairman’s contentious proposal to separate ATC from the federal government.

For BMW, which now exports more cars from the U.S. than General Motors Co., a top infrastructure priority is ensuring that ports can accept bigger ships.

“We need to both send cars or receive parts,” said Ludwig Willisch, BMW’s president and CEO.

Willisch added that consistent road markings and readable road signs will be critical to ensuring the safe and effective rollout of self-driving cars, which need to be able to interact with the infrastructure around them. BMW will be testing a fleet of driverless vehicles later this year.
 
When it comes to funding solutions, FedEx’s Smith said he supports raising the gas and diesel tax — something he expressed to the administration as recently as Tuesday. 

While a number of red states have increased their own gas taxes, the issue is essentially a non-starter in the Republican-led Congress. The federal gas tax hasn’t gone up in more than 20 years.

Smith also advocated for a variety of other funding tools, including taxes on vehicle miles traveled; tax reform that brings back money stored overseas; and user fees that are based on traffic volumes.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, also called for increased user fees and a more stable Highway Trust Fund. Trumka thinks a package in the $1 trillion-range is the “right scale,” but urged lawmakers to ensure so-called Buy America rules and Davis-Bacon worker wage protections are included in any measure.

Panelists were also pressed on whether they agree with relying on public-private partnerships to help finance transportation projects, which is a cornerstone of the proposal Trump floated on the campaign trail.

Across the board, however, business leaders and organized-labor leaders agreed that private financing alone can’t solve the country’s infrastructure needs.

“Everybody agrees we need to do something. That’s kind of like the easiest, low-hanging fruit there is,” said Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.). “But somebody’s got to pay for this.”

While there will likely be party-line divisions over funding offsets, Trump’s proposal could also face pushback from within his own party, where fiscal conservatives are often reluctant to back massive federal spending on transportation.

But Republican lawmakers on the Transportation panel are hoping that the potential business and economic benefits of infrastructure investments will appeal to their conservative colleagues.

“Sometimes there are folks in my own party who don’t believe we should invest in infrastructure,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) said to the panelists. “We need to hear from you, like we did today, about how any investments in infrastructure help to actually grow our economy, grows jobs, grows opportunity.”