Republicans’ incoming Senate majority could stall a repeat effort to boost transportation and infrastructure spending, which had been hiked by billions of dollars in the previous funding cycle.
The surface transportation reauthorization bill in 2021 became the so-called bipartisan infrastructure law when $550 billion in new spending was added for roads, bridges and public transportation. Although 19 Senate Republicans voted for it, President-elect Donald Trump’s stated intention to scale back the government could mean lower funding levels the next time around.
“It remains to be seen if the next bill will be a capital ‘I’ infrastructure bill or a surface transportation reauthorization bill,” Susan Howard, director of policy and government relations at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said in August at a state legislative summit. “You probably would get different answers across the spectrum from folks on that, but I think we don’t quite know yet what that focus will be.”
