Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and the Committee’s Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) released the text of a bipartisan, five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that invests in America’s roads, bridges, transit, rail transportation, and highway and motor carrier safety programs.
The BUILD America 250 Act – Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act – emphasizes moving people, goods and freight safely and efficiently across the country. The bill provides the largest-ever investment in America’s bridges, focuses on proven surface transportation infrastructure programs, provides passenger rail investments and reforms, improves rail safety, ensures that transportation projects and programs are more efficient, encourages innovation and provides the first ever autonomous commercial motor vehicle framework.
The bill also strengthens the Highway Trust Fund by ensuring all highway users pay their share for the use and improvement of the nation’s roads. As a result, the BUILD America 250 Act injects the Highway Trust Fund with its first new stream of revenue for infrastructure in over three decades.
“I believe the BUILD America 250 Act is the most important surface transportation bill since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System. Like the America 250 celebration this year, this bill is not simply about honoring our past – it’s about moving forward and building upon the legacy of our nation’s infrastructure,” said Chairman Graves. “I’m extremely proud of the historic level of investment in America’s bridges – at more than $50 billion, it’s the largest such investment in our history. And the BUILD America 250 Act ensures that electric vehicle owners begin paying their fair share for the use of our roads. The bill also makes smart and targeted reforms to our surface transportation programs, focuses on strengthening our core infrastructure system, drives innovation, bolsters safety, ensures states have the flexibility they need, and cuts red tape to get projects built faster. I want to thank Ranking Member Larsen and our subcommittee leaders for their strong partnership in developing this important legislation.”
“You can’t have a big-league economy with little-league infrastructure,” said Ranking Member Larsen. “The BUILD America 250 Act makes key investments in the nation’s transportation – from restoring aging bridges and repairing crumbling roads to building out safe, accessible transit and bike infrastructure. A commitment to bipartisan lawmaking means finding compromise; while this bill does not include every priority, I am committed to building on the last bipartisan infrastructure law by creating good-paying transportation jobs, growing the economy and safely transporting people and goods across the country by road and rail. Thank you to Chairman Graves for his partnership. I look forward to marking up this bill soon.”
To prepare for the BUILD America 250 Act, the Committee held numerous hearings throughout the last year and a half and solicited input, ideas, and priorities for consideration from all Members of the House and the broad infrastructure stakeholder community – more than 11,000 individual policy requests were submitted in total.
Committee leaders plan to formally introduce the legislation soon, and at a later date, the Committee will announce further plans for a legislative markup of the bill, with the ultimate goal of sending legislation from Congress to the President’s desk before the current surface transportation authorization expires on Sept. 30, 2026.
“An emphatic round of applause for the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from America’s cement manufacturers for valiantly delivering on the authentically bipartisan BUILD America 250 Act,’ said Sean O’Neill, senior vice president of government affairs, American Cement Association “Not only will this critical work erase years of uncertainty regarding the upkeep and future construction of essential roads, bridges and highways, but it will jumpstart the overall transportation infrastructure market… spurring the creation of new jobs and growing the demand for all domestic construction materials, including cement and concrete.”
Michele Stanley, president and CEO of NSSGA, commented, “We thank House T&I Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.), Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) and their staffs for their hard work in drafting the Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development (BUILD) for America’s 250th Act. We are encouraged by what we are seeing in our review and look forward to working with the committee as they head toward mark-up of the bill later this week.”
“AED commends Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larsen for drafting a bipartisan bill that calls for historic investments to rebuild America’s surface transportation infrastructure and provides long-term certainty to the construction sector,” said Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) President and CEO Brian P. McGuire. “We urge lawmakers to continue to work in a bipartisan manner and send the BUILD America 250 Act to the president’s desk as soon as possible.”
You can read the entire bill here.
