Transportation & Climate Legislative Scorecard

As Congress turns its attention to the upcoming surface reauthorization, Third Way and Transportation for America have released a bold federal policy agenda with recommendations to make our transportation network cleaner, safer, and more equitable for all users. Alongside that, we’ve released the below scorecard to show how the House and Senate reauthorization proposals stack up against our recommendations.

Overall, the House Democrats’ bill goes much further to address the climate, safety, and equity impacts that decades of misplaced federal priorities have had on our transportation network. While the bill isn’t perfect, it would put us on a path towards decarbonizing the transportation sector, making our roads safe for people who are not in cars, and providing underserved communities better access to economic opportunities particularly by building out public transportation.

In contrast, the Senate EPW bill introduces some good new programs to address emissions, congestion, and other important topics but does not make needed changes to the core federal formula programs. While we appreciate the committee’s commitment to bipartisanship, the bill simply does not go far enough to reduce emissions or improve safety. (Note that the Senate EPW Committee, unlike the House T&I Committee, does not have jurisdiction over transit or rail policy.)

For a more detailed version of this scorecard including explanations for each grade, click here.