The America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act, which heads to the Senate floor for a vote, includes several Oregon transportation priorities.
Such priorities include a funding increase for rural projects, investments in resiliency, coastal infrastructure, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, congestion relief, a new air quality study and a new grant program for states to remove non-native plants along transportation corridors. The additions were advanced along with the rest of the bill by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this week.
“Everywhere I go in Oregon—rural or urban, east or west—people are looking for help building and rebuilding for the future,” U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who serves on the EPW Committee, said. “They know building stuff means good jobs now, and that there’s no shortage of important work to do. In addition to more funding for the roads, bridges, and transit improvements every community needs, this bill puts serious resources into resiliency. It will help Oregon prepare for the increasingly frequent extreme weather events and natural disasters and the sea level rise caused by climate chaos. If we are serious about investing in our communities and our future, we should do far more infrastructure building, but this is a good down payment.”
Over the five years, the ATIA would exist if passed, funding for small community would stand to increase to an 80-20 federal match. Covered under Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grants, such grants traditionally come with a 70-30 federal to local ratio. Further, the resiliency investments would take the form of funding to improve surface transportation endurance — improvements Merkley and Oregon have argued are necessary in the face of impending climate change.
Beyond this, the $287 billion bill would also set aside funds for a new program called the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Grant. Funds so marked would go toward at-risk infrastructure in coastal states, evacuation routes for emergencies and for the transportation of emergency responders and resources alike to sites of natural disasters.
Another grant program would be set up or five years, operating at $1 billion, to support electric vehicle and alternative fuel infrastructure. As efforts are made to make transportation greener, the legislation would also create a separate, $200 million competitive grant program to technologies that reduce congestion-linked emissions. Speaking of emissions, the bill also now requires a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program in improving the nation’s air quality. The last grant addition heads back to ground, however, providing funds for the removal of non-native plants along transportation corridors and incentivizing states to replant using pollinator-friendly native plants and wildflowers.