In the News

Connolly Statement on House passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act:

It’s been more than a decade since Congress passed a long-term transportation funding bill, which has served as a major roadblock for economic growth and resulted in crumbling roads and bridges across the Commonwealth. Representing Northern Virginia, which has the nation’s worst congestion, I was pleased to serve on the joint House-Senate conference committee that negotiated this final compromise.

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (or FAST) Act will increase federal investments in roads, bridges, mass transit, and safety programs. Over the next five years, it will provide nearly $480 million in additional funding for local road and highway projects in Virginia. It will provide nearly $52 million in additional mass transit support, which is particularly important to regions like ours in providing commuters with more transportation choices.

It also directs the Secretary of Transportation to provide safety oversight for Metro in the wake of a series of shocking accidents over the past year, one of which resulted in the tragic death of a Virginia resident. I and other members of the National Capital Region’s congressional delegation have been working with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Transit Administration to provide additional oversight for Metro. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on which I serve as Ranking Member of the Government Operations Subcommittee, held two hearings on Metro’s operations earlier this year.

I was pleased to see the bill expand federal financing opportunities for smaller road and transit projects, particularly transit oriented development projects, under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (or TIFIA). Unfortunately, the compromise bill reduces the annual funding for this federal financing program. Several major Northern Virginia projects, including the Silver Line and both the 495 and 95 Express Lanes, have benefitted tremendously from federal loans under the TIFIA program.

Based on my 14 years serving on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I know firsthand how critical long-term federal investments are to building complex transportation projects. These are not short-term investments. It takes years to plan, design, and build a major transportation improvement, and you need to know the funding will be there before you set the wheels in motion. More than half of Virginia’s road and transit projects for next year rely on some form of federal funding.

While this bill further advances innovative financing solutions, such as public private partnerships in new areas like mass transit and railroad station development, those are only one part of the solution.  At the end of the day, what we really need is more robust and reliable federal funding. This bill falls short of what the President and many industry experts say is necessary to not only maintain but expand our transportation network. The federal government historically has been an equal partner in funding our nation’s infrastructure, but that level of investment has eroded over time. Public spending on infrastructure as a share of GDP has declined by half since the 1960s when it was roughly 3%. However, we know that every dollar invested in public transportation translates into four dollars of economic growth.

So while this bill represents a real breakthrough, there is still work to be done. Just as I have done throughout my 20 years in public office, I will continue to advocate for increased spending on transportation because of the tremendous return on investment our communities realize in terms of improved mobility, job creation, and economic growth.