Senators Lautenberg, Murray and Cantwell introduce legislation for new freight program

Written by jrood

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), with co-sponsors Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), introduced the Focusing Resources, Economic Investment and Guidance to Help Transportation Act of 2010 (FREIGHT Act), a landmark bill, leading the charge to transform America's transportation policy and investment by focusing on the freight network that enables goods and commodities to move about and reach their markets. The FREIGHT Act provides a visionary, comprehensive, systemic approach to infrastructure investment that addresses the nation's commerce needs while providing a solid foundation that will also help our nation meet its energy, environmental and safety goals. The bill also calls for the creation of a new National Freight Infrastructure Grants initiative - a competitive, merit-based program with broad eligibility for multimodal freight investment designed to focus funds where they will provide the most public benefit.

"Poor planning and underinvestment in our
transportation infrastructure has led to increased congestion at our ports,
highways, airports, and railways, and increases the cost of doing business. If
we want to help U.S. businesses succeed and create new jobs, we need a freight
transportation system that works better and can grow with the changing needs of
the global economy," said Senator Lautenberg in his statement.

"The FREIGHT Act is a paradigm shift our CAGTC
members have long advocated and represents a bold step toward ensuring our
nation’s economic competitiveness in the 21st century," said Mortimer Downey,
CAGTC Chairman, Senior Advisor, Parsons Brinckerhoff and former U.S. Deputy
Secretary of Transportation. "For the first time ever, the bill establishes a
comprehensive freight policy with outcome-based goals and creates a broad
multimodal, competitive freight-specific program to provide the infrastructure
necessary to move this country’s commerce and drive the economy."

The FREIGHT Act of 2010 directs the Department of
Transportation to develop and implement two institutional advances that will
improve and coordinate policy within the federal government and the states. The
first is a National Freight Transportation Strategic Plan to guide and inform goods
movement infrastructure investments in future years. In addition, it calls for
the creation of an Office of Freight Planning and Development, led by an
Assistant Secretary for Freight Planning and Development. The bill instructs U.S.
DOT to develop baselines, tools and methods within two years to measure
progress.

"A truly multimodal national freight program that is
accountable to measurable performance targets and benchmarks is something the
U.S. has needed for a long time," said James Corless, director
of Transportation for America. "We applaud Senator Lautenberg for
recognizing that our freight system can move our goods from coast to coast and
power the economy while also being part of the solution for many of our most
pressing problems: air quality, dangerous emissions, oil dependence and
congestion on our highways and interstates, to name just a few."

In developing the National Freight Transportation
Policy, the FREIGHT Act also encourages concurrent improvements in air quality
impacts, carbon emissions, energy use and public health and safety by
establishing environmental goals to complement goals for reducing delays and
improving travel time reliability on freight corridors, at gateways and heavy
freight population centers. Similarly, the grant program sets criteria to
prioritize projects that improve freight mobility and enhance economic growth,
while incentivizing environmental improvements.

"Congress must modernize our outdated freight
infrastructure to reduce its harmful environmental and public health
impacts," said Kathryn Phillips, a transportation expert with the
Environmental Defense Fund. "This important bill provides a roadmap to
target federal investment to create a cleaner, more reliable freight system for
the 21st century."

System performance is emphasized throughout the
FREIGHT Act and projects will be judged on benefit-cost analysis. The
significant overlap among public and private interests in the freight system is
recognized through encouraged planning and cooperation with private sector
interests, while the grant program leverages Federal investment by promoting
non-Federal contributions to projects.

"The National Freight Infrastructure Investment
Grants program proposed in this bill would be an important addition to the
federal toolbox. It would help fund exactly the type of multi-modal,
multi-jurisdictional, major transportation infrastructure projects that have
historically been overlooked by the federal transportation investment
process," said Chuck Baker, CAGTC Member and President of the National Railroad
Construction and Maintenance Association.

The Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade
Corridors, Environmental Defense Fund and Transportation for America commend
Senator Lautenberg and the other co-sponsors of this visionary and
strategically important policy. The three organizations have agreed to work
together in support of the FREIGHT Act and call upon all in the transportation
community to join in support.

Tags: