U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) recently joined Republicans on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to unveil a legislative plan that includes a five-year reauthorization to fix the nation’s surface transportation infrastructure and a strategy to reduce the project permitting process, among other sweeping goals.
Known as the Commitment to America framework, the plan also will focus on core transportation needs, emphasize investment in rural infrastructure, prepare the highway system for future transportation technologies, and reform the Highway Trust Fund, said Rep. Graves, ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“House Republicans understand the importance of a modern infrastructure to every state in America and our economy,” said Rep. Graves. “Unlike the Speaker’s partisan agenda to defund, destroy and dismantle, improving our nation’s infrastructure is a key pillar of House Republicans’ plan to rebuild the greatest economy in history.”
The GOP plan, according to the Commitment to America website, also includes strategies to modernize the Strategic National Stockpile, bring drug manufacturing back to the United States, support local businesses and their workers with $200 billion in forgivable loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, extend the $2,000 child tax credit, and make permanent Opportunity Zone credits that generate $10 billion each year in poor communities, among others.
Specifically, the Commitment America plan is based on the Surface Transportation Advanced through Reform, Technology, and Efficient Review (STARTER) Act, H.R. 7248, which Rep. Graves introduced on June 18 to authorize funds for federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs. The measure has 22 original GOP cosponsors. The bill remains under consideration in both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.