The future and focus of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a big question mark.
“We cannot predict what the major focus and priorities will be until later this year and into early next year,” Jordan Baugh, senior policy advisor for the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told a session on surface transportation at NCSL’s 2024 Legislative Summit.
The IIJA, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, expires in 2026 so will need to be reauthorized during the next administration. The act goes beyond surface transportation to include drinking water, wastewater infrastructure, ports and waterways, airports and passenger and freight rail. A bipartisan group of senators drafted the bill, which passed in 2021. Discussions around its reauthorization will start in 2025.
“It remains to be seen if the next bill will be a capital ‘I’ infrastructure bill or a surface transportation reauthorization bill,” says Susan Howard, director of policy and government relations at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
The biggest question is what the scope of the next bill will be. Since the current IIJA goes beyond surface transportation, it will be up to the next Congress to decide whether to continue those programs, Baugh says.
“As you know, whoever holds the gavel sets the agenda,” he says.
As the bill is reauthorized, committees will go over what worked and what didn’t. Baugh says areas of focus in the next bill could include bridges, discretionary grant programs, electric vehicles and work zone safety.
Another issue that must be addressed is funding, as the “status quo is really not sustainable for the highway trust fund over time,” Baugh says. “States are much further ahead than the federal government in this regard because many states are carrying out pilot programs for alternative funding sources.”
Extending the Infrastructure Law a ‘Must’
Because the bill has such a wide scope and so many parts, it is more innovative in its funding methods and the programs that it provides, Howard says.
“Federal transportation bills must be extended or renewed because we rely on the federal gas tax to fund the highway trust fund,” she says. “That is something that cannot lapse. If it lapses, money stops flowing.”
Vermont Sen. Rebecca White (D) asked if there would be funding to support and explore creative technology for roads because of issues like flooding.
It is not in the current IIAJ, but Baugh says they “will continue to see interest in looking at ways to incentivize research around alternative materials.”
Another questioner asked if current IIAJ programs will be carried over. Howard says that two new formula programs are “a big deal” and that electric vehicles could be a big topic of discussion for the next bill.
Baugh says there was hope for a streamlined grant system where legislators don’t have to submit multiple applications.
Utah Rep. Kay Christofferson (R) asked if it was time to turn the transportation program back over to the states.
Howard noted that highways and some infrastructures do not stop at state borders and there are national priorities to consider as well. A combination of local, federal and state governments makes the program work, she says.
“We have a federal system,” she says, “and it has blended and shifted based on where we are as a country.”
Hannah Edelheit is an intern in NCSL’s Communications Division.