U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ranking member, recently called for more investment in freight infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest.
“I was illuminating the fact that other countries are being more aggressive and that we pay the price for [our] lack of investment,” Cantwell said. “I am sure we can get a very broad coalition of people who say we should be spending more on freight. When you look at the numbers, we’re going to see a 40 percent increase in freight. We should be celebrating that now we have, on a global basis…a tipping point. The majority of the world’s population is middle class. They’re going to eat and consume things that America can produce and export to them. It is a tremendous market, but if we can’t get our products there because they’re sitting somewhere in traffic, it’s going to be a problem for us.”
Cantwell’s comments followed a hearing Tuesday on transportation infrastructure where Joel Szabat, U.S. Department of Transportation acting under secretary of transportation for policy, testified.
Cantwell asked Szabat if the department was willing to increase an existing cap for freight infrastructure investment grants provided by the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program.
Szabat responded he could not answer because the Trump administration does not have a position on lifting the cap.