Tonight, billions of dollars in federal transportation funding will expire. Even though Congress extended the IIJA through December, it failed to continue billions of dollars in advance appropriations for transit, passenger rail, safety, bridges, and other essential programs—meaning those funds will no longer be available. Highway funding, on the other hand, will continue through December 11 without interruption.
Once again, Congress is prioritizing highway funding at the expense of everything else—even though this approach undermines our safety, maintenance, and transit goals.
This failure comes at the expense of communities across the country that rely on these investments for safer streets, reliable transit, and better transportation options. According to APTA, the loss of this funding will result in a 20% cut to public transit investment and an over 80% cut to passenger rail funding.
Road and bridge repair will take a hit, too. Despite an annual maintenance backlog of over $40 billion, the Union of Concerned Scientists says bridge funding will be cut significantly, and nothing has changed to prevent states from prioritizing costly expansions over roadway maintenance.
This funding lapse is negligent. In the lame duck, Congress should restore this funding to support rural transit, passenger rail, safer streets, and road and bridge repairs.
But this is also a symptom of a larger problem: We continue to prioritize highway expansion at the expense of everything else. We should learn from today. The next transportation bill should make repair, safety, transit, and passenger rail priorities, and not an afterthought.
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