Approval ratings for Congress currently sit at an abysmal 16%, and it’s no wonder why: Last year, the federal government broke its record for longest continuous shutdown at 43 days. Today, a partial shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security has surpassed 69 days.
Congress has an opportunity to regain the public’s trust by delivering on the surface transportation reauthorization due in late September. The reauthorization was included in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by former President Joe Biden in 2021.
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While the act promised a major infusion into American infrastructure investment and related jobs, a report from the Urban Institute found that many of the legislation’s programs have been slow to finish and deploy. Moreover, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the body spearheading the reauthorization in the lower chamber of Congress, recently announced his retirement, providing another hurdle for a successful reauthorization.
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Despite these hurdles, Congress has an important opportunity to defy expectations and deliver efficient infrastructure results for the American people. Congress can do so by tying infrastructure spending to efficiency benchmarks and providing transparency to ensure accountability if benchmarks are not being met.
The surface transportation reauthorization is the legislative process by which the federal surface transportation program is renewed, providing crucial funding and prerogatives for highways, bridges, railways, and public transit systems across the country. It provides funding not only for federal projects, but also for state and local ones seeking federal assistance. The reauthorization sets the tone for infrastructure development for a half-decade and impacts major projects that affect Americans from the Florida Keys to Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu. The reauthorization is a universal infrastructure act that can give directives for new and existing infrastructure. If enacted correctly, this reauthorization can reinvigorate U.S. infrastructure development for the next half-decade.
The current surface transportation reauthorization was included in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided over $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending, yet it became inefficient in practice. The lesson lawmakers should take from this legislation is that winning in infrastructure development does not simply mean funding — it means results.
Therefore, the upcoming reauthorization must be considered a success based on the miles of roads paved, tracks laid, and utilities constructed. What this means is a fundamentally rethought infrastructure funding and project approval system that is tied to efficiency and results.
Research from the Brookings Institution shows that most states fail to measure long-range performance goals, and over 30 fail to use any public-facing project selection systems for transportation projects. This failure affects both the efficiency and transparency of major state transportation projects, many of which get federal funding.
In the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization, Congress can tie dollars to the use and construction of state tools for transportation project efficiency and transparency. On the issue of transparency, the federal government can continue to pioneer in this field by establishing a dashboard to track the progress of major federal infrastructure projects.
Multiple states operate data-driven transparency dashboards, and Virginia operates a cheap and effective permit transparency platform. A Federal Highway Administration study found that state dashboards increase public accountability, streamline data gathering, and save staff hours spent sifting through repetitive reports. In the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization, Congress can shed light on stagnant infrastructure projects and reduce bureaucratic delay through transparency.
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Every American interacts with some sort of federally integrated surface transportation mechanism each day. Whether it be an interstate highway or railroad, a state road receiving federal funds, or public transit launched with federal subsidies, every aspect of American life is affected by the surface transportation reauthorization. Pair that fact with the recent troubles Congress has faced, the inability of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to live up to its promise, and the abysmal congressional approval rating, and Congress has been blessed with an opportunity to begin to right these wrongs.
For the American people’s house to return to glory, it has to do its job. By successfully reigniting America’s surface transportation projects through radical transparency and efficiency, Congress does its job and takes one step in the right direction toward rebuilding public trust.
Drew DiMeglio (@DrewDiMeglio) is a Young Voices contributor studying government at Hampden-Sydney College. His writing has been featured in USA Today, the American Spectator, and the Carolina Journal.
