Yesterday Jim Roberts, president & chief executive officer of Granite Construction, testified on behalf of the AGC co-chaired Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) at a hearing, “Building a 21st Century Infrastructure for America: Highways and Transit Stakeholders’ Perspectives,” in front of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. The hearing was an opportunity for the TCC to share the transportation construction industries priorities as Congress and the administration work toward an infrastructure proposal. The TCC testimony stressed the need to include a permanent fix for the Highway Trust Fund as part of any federal infrastructure effort, allocate any new funding for federal highway and transit programs among existing programs, continue providing tools that encourage the use of public-private partnerships.  Mr. Roberts and the TCC also encouraged the committee to fix the Highway Trust Fund as part of comprehensive tax reform.
Additionally, the TCC offered three specific recommendations to improve the environmental review process:

• Require a merger of the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act 404 permitting processes


• Allow the monitoring, mitigation and other environmental planning work performed during the NEPA process, and included the final Environmental Impact Statement / Record of Decision, to satisfy federal environmental permitting requirements, unless there is a material change in the project


• Develop a reasonable and measured approach to citizen suit reform to prevent misuse of environmental laws

AGC and our partners in the Transportation Construction Coalition will continue to push for an infrastructure proposal that among other things provides a long term solution to the Highway Trust Fund and expedites the delivery of infrastructure projects.
For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at [email protected] or (202) 547-8892.