Why BUILD America 250 Would Be Uniquely Bad For Passenger Rail - Streetsblog USA

BUILD America 250 could remove more than 80% of federal funding for railways even while increasing operations funding for Amtrak on paper. The National Rail Passengers Association declined to endorse the bill because it does not provide reliable funding or a clear commitment to growth. The bill lacks advanced appropriations for transportation programs not secured by the Highway Trust fund, which includes passenger rail funding. As a result, Congress would need to approve each promised dollar through the annual budget process before funds are released. Funding for highway programs is structured differently and avoids the appropriations process, despite long-standing shortfalls from gas taxes and limited improvements in congestion, traffic deaths, or promised road benefits.

"Advocates at the National Rail Passengers Association declined to endorse the BUILD America 250 Act, which they said failed to provide "reliable funding and a clear commitment to growth" for train operators across America - despite more than doubling operations funding for Amtrak in the first fiscal year alone."

"Unlike the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the new bill would theoretically replace when it expires on Sept. 30, BUILD America 250 includes no "advanced appropriations" for any transportation program not secured by the Highway Trust fund - a $106 billion category which includes all funding for passenger rail. That means that every single dollar it "promises" to train operators would need to be approved by Congress again as part of the annual budget process before it actually goes out the door."

"By contrast, BUILD America 250 promises more funding for highway programs without subjecting that money to the appropriations process - even though gas taxes have failed to actually cover the costs of America's asphalt addiction for decades, and growing highways have failed to curb congestion, cut traffic deaths, or delivery any of the benefits that road builders so often promise."

""The message of this bill is loud and clear: highways and roads are a core federal priority and intercity rail is a state-level vanity project that Congress is willing to play along with -but only up to a point," wrote Sean Jeans-Gail, the association's vice president of government affairs and policy."

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