Senators Work to Protect Essential Freight Policies, Investments in Long-Term Transportation Bill

Statement

Today, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) joined by Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Patty Murray (D-WA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Tom Carper (D-DE), pressed Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Reid, and Senators on the long-term transportation bill conference committee to maintain in the final conference report critical freight policy and the multimodal freight grant program contained in the Senate-passed DRIVE Act.

The multimodal freight grant program is the first-ever grant program focused solely on freight and would fund railway, seaport, and highway projects such as highway-rail separations to increase safety and on-dock rail systems to lower congestion. Senator Cantwell championed the grant program as part of her National Multimodal Freight Policy and Investment Act.

The senators also urged the conference committee to remove any restrictions on the amount of funding that can go to multimodal freight projects.

"We strongly encourage you to include the policy and funding provisions contained in the Freight Division of the Senate-passed DRIVE Act in the final conference report, and to remove any restrictions on the amount of funding that can go to multimodal freight projects under the bill," the Senators wrote in the letter. "As the global middle class continues to grow, the United States needs to maintain its competiveness through its ability to move products to the international marketplace. Increased global trade, as we see in our every increasing flow of exports and imports, makes clear that robust investment in our nation's freight network needs to be made now."

Currently, the rapid movement of goods is bottlenecked by delays in the freight system, which cost American businesses, farmers, and shippers $200 billion a year. According to a recent report, multimodal freight moving through Washington state could grow 77% by 2030, yet the Washington State Department of Transportation found that a 20% increase in freight congestion could result in a loss of $3.3 billion and more than 27,000 jobs statewide. Unless smart investments are made in our nation's freight infrastructure, the United States as a whole could face losses of up to $1.3 trillion and stands to lose more than 700,000 jobs by 2020.

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