WASHINGTON – The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved INVEST in America Act that will invest $500 billion over the next five years to expand, rebuild and replace the nation’s failing infrastructure.
Several of Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney’s priorities and amendments wee included in the package, which is headed to the House floor for a vote.
The measure would dedicate an estimated $12.1 billion to fix New York’s federal highways, and would reauthorize the National Scenic Byways Program for the next five years and provide millions to communities to support scenic byways and the tourism they support.
Maloney’s amendment would also ban Chinese State-Owned Enterprises from receiving taxpayer-funded highway, transit and rail dollars. It would also create more equity for underserved communities in the Federal Transit Administration’s “Smart Starts” grant program, which will make transit projects in the Hudson Valley more competitive.
Also included are funds for large transportation projects to reduce congestion, like Gateway; design streets that are safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers; increase funding for public transit in urban, suburban and rural areas; reduce carbon pollution and invest in green technologies and innovations in the transportation sector; invest in the rail system; improve access to federal transportation funding to help all communities undertake transformative infrastructure and transportation projects; and would briefly eliminate the state-federal match, ensuring that all federal dollars offered in 2021 would be 100 percent federally funded.
