On Tuesday, June 23, 2015, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee released the text of the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy (DRIVE) Act, a six-year transportation reauthorization bill. Spanning FY 2016-21, the DRIVE Act would authorize $257.5 billion for the nation's highway programs, or about $43 billion each year, a modest 3 percent increase on average over current funding levels. Illinois would receive an estimated total of $9.35 billion over the six-year life of the bill, or an average of about $1.56 billion annually. Because of limitations to the Senate EPW Committee's jurisdiction, the DRIVE Act does not include provisions to reauthorize the nation's transit, rail, and other transportation programs. These provisions would need to be added at a later date by the Senate Banking, Senate Commerce, and Senate Finance Committees.
The DRIVE Act largely continues the programs in MAP-21 but builds upon MAP-21's freight policy in significant ways. For the first time, it funds a federal freight program, tying these funds to a newly designated national highway freight network, certain types of projects, and various plans and performance measures.
Illinois would receive $70-90 million in new freight funding each year under the DRIVE Act's provisions, for an estimated six-year total of $485 million. Additionally, the DRIVE Act would give our state government, local governments, transit agencies, and other public agencies the chance to compete for funding through a new Assistance for Major Projects Program (AMPP). AMPP would be funded at $300-450 million annually and would be designated to support large, complex infrastructure projects, including freight projects. Projects in Illinois have historically performed well in national discretionary programs such as the TIGER program.
Overall provisions
The DRIVE Act establishes a new "National Freight Program," authorizing a total of $13.5 billion over the six-year term of the bill. The initial funding amount would be $2 billion in FY16, growing by $100 million each year to a final amount of $2.5 billion in FY21. Like the overall apportionments in the bill, these funds would be distributed proportionally among the states based on their shares of FY14 apportionments, adjusted so that no state receives back less than 95 percent of its estimated tax payments to the Highway Trust Fund. This same adjustment was made in MAP-21 between FY13 and FY14, resulting in a decline in funding for Illinois. In FY14, Illinois received 3.63 percent of the total apportionment, down from the 3.67 it received in FY13. While the lower rate seems like a modest change, it resulted in a decrease in funding for Illinois of over $13 million.
The new National Freight Program builds upon MAP-21's National Freight Network (NFN), modifying the NFN and Primary Freight Network (PFN). The DRIVE Act would establish a new National Highway Freight Network (NHFN), composed of the redesignated Primary Highway Freight System (PHFS), critical rural freight corridors (CRFCs), critical urban freight corridors (CUFCs), and the remaining segments of the Interstate system.
The DRIVE Act ties the new freight funding to the NHFN. If a state contains more than 3 percent of the nation's PHFS mileage, then it must obligate its freight formula funds on the PHFS, CRFCs, or CUFCs. States that contain less than 3 percent of the total PHFS mileage may obligate funds on any portion of the NHFN. For reference, Illinois contains 1,512.25 miles out of 26,966.01 total miles, or 5.6 percent, for the draft PFN established under MAP-21; the U.S. DOT has yet to define a final PFN. Nevertheless, it appears reasonable to assume that Illinois would contain more than 3 percent of the nation's PHFS mileage under the DRIVE Act, requiring the state to spend its new freight funding on a smaller subset of the highway network.
Project eligibility is broad, covering all project development phases and a wide range of freight-related work types. Examples include highway-rail grade separations, geometric improvements, truck parking facilities, and various advanced technologies like traffic signal optimization or real-time travel information. The DRIVE Act also allows funding for multimodal projects: States would be allowed to obligate up to 10 percent of their formula funds for projects within the boundaries of public or private freight railroads, water facilities, and intermodal facilities.
Redesignating the National Highway Freight Network
The PHFS would initially be based on the MAP-21 PFN and all National Highway System (NHS) intermodal connectors. It would be redesignated one year after enactment of the DRIVE Act, then every five years thereafter. The first redesignation would have a mileage cap of 30,000 centerline miles, without regarding system connectivity. For the subsequent redesignations, the U.S. DOT would be able to increase the system mileage by 5 percent, again without regard to connectivity. All NHS freight intermodal connectors must be included in the redesignations.
The DRIVE Act would give states greater control over redesignation of the PHFS. State freight advisory committees would be allowed to submit additional miles for consideration to the Secretary and can, within a year of redesignation, increase the mileage within their states by 10 percent to close gaps, make first and last mile connections, and designate emerging routes. State freight advisory committees must consider nominations for additional miles submitted by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and ensure that additional miles are consistent with state freight plans.
In general, the DRIVE Act defines more explicit, objective criteria for the designation of CRFCs than the designation of CUFCs. States may designate rural principal arterials as CRFCs if these facilities meet various criteria, such as more than 25 percent of daily traffic from trucks or handling 50,000 TEUs annually. MPOs in regions of 500,000 or more residents, and state DOTs in urban areas of fewer than 500,000 residents, may designate a public road as a CUFC if it meets various criteria, including access to intermodal facilities or other major freight generators.
The designation of a PHFN, CUFCs, and CRFCs provides an opportunity for state DOTs, MPOs, and other stakeholders to identify highway segments that are critical to goods movement, thereby focusing federal resources on the locations of greatest significance. The collaborative process outlined in the bill could also promote more planning across agencies and an overall emphasis on the needs of the freight system.
Planning and performance
While MAP-21 encourages states to establish freight advisory committees and freight plans, the DRIVE Act would require them as a prerequisite to receive funding from the new freight program. Additionally, the DRIVE Act would require the U.S. DOT to develop and regularly update a national freight strategic plan, consulting with state DOTs, MPOs, and other stakeholders.
MAP-21 included a new emphasis on performance measurement. The DRIVE Act would continue this effort, requiring the U.S. DOT to submit national freight transportation performance reports to Congress, as well as an evaluation of multimodal freight projects included in state freight plans. It would also impose new penalties on states that fail to meet or make significant progress on their freight performance targets as defined in MAP-21, requiring them to report to U.S. DOT on the actions they will take to meet the performance targets. States must submit these reports every other year until U.S. DOT determines they have met their targets.
Looking Ahead
The DRIVE Act would enact many of CMAP's freight policy positions, including the establishment of funding for a national freight program and greater participation of MPOs in the planning and programming processes. These policy positions have been approved by the CMAP Board in its federal agenda, and enjoy support from other major MPOs across the country. Additionally, leaders from the seven counties in northeastern Illinois, the City of Chicago, and the CMAP Board recently cosigned a letter to the Senate EPW Committee echoing these positions.
While the DRIVE Act relies on performance-based criteria for national and state freight plans and the designation of strategic highway networks, it fails to apply these same principles to the overall allocation of funding. Relying on the bill's overall apportionment formulas to allocate freight funds ignores the outsized role that some states and metropolitan areas play in the movement of the nation's goods. The Chicago region is the nation's preeminent freight hub, touching one-third to one-quarter of all freight and roughly half of total intermodal movements. A truly performance-based national freight program would steer resources to locations based on need, rather than spreading funds arbitrarily across the country.
The DRIVE Act provides an excellent starting point for discussion. CMAP will continue to work with its partners to advocate for a truly performance-based approach to national freight policy, including not just planning but also allocation of funds. Stay tuned for additional analysis on the transportation reauthorization process as it unfolds.