TO: U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
RE: Legislative proposals for consideration as the Committee begins efforts to reauthorize surface transportation programs.
DATE: April 30, 2025
National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is pleased to offer the following suggestions regarding reauthorization of U.S. surface transportation programs. NTU has an abiding interest in policies that meet the challenges of transportation and infrastructure while protecting taxpayers and the free-market economy. Accordingly, NTU has made recommendations to Congress going back to the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, and the Bus Regulatory Reform Act of 1982. The following recommendations can encourage taxpayer-friendly infrastructure and transportation policies.
Avoid excessive Amtrak subsidies: The government-owned Amtrak rail company has received billions of dollars in taxpayer support since its creation. Amtrak must be reformed and held to account, not showered with additional taxpayer subsidies. Remaining grant funds for intercity passenger rail systems, a close and costly cousin of Amtrak, should likewise be reevaluated. As of this year, billions in monies for these projects from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act remain unobligated, and could be repurposed for pro-growth tax relief or deficit reduction.
Nurture and Encourage Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): PPPs allow a single private consortium to design, build, operate, and maintain a government facility, road, or other piece of infrastructure. This arrangement has saved as much as 25%over life-cycle project costs, and transfers the risk of excessive costs or delays from taxpayers to the PPP consortium.
Promote reasonable rail safety regulation, and avoid unjustified proposals such as mandates for two-person train crews: In the past, Congress has attempted to mandate that large railroads maintain two-person crews. This is misguided regulatory overreach. In 2019, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) concluded there was little to no evidence that safety could be compromised by single-person crews when deployed properly on certain routes. The two-person rule would impose significant and unnecessary costs on American taxpayers and consumers.
Transition to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) user fees: With the rise of electric vehicles and more fuel-efficient cars, the federal excise tax on gasoline is no longer a true user fee model and should be gradually replaced with a VMT fee. A VMT fee would more accurately distribute the cost of repairing roads to those who use them the most. A VMT fee, coupled with the phaseout of excise taxes to avoid unwarranted government revenue windfalls, meets the challenges of the 21st century far more effectively than the fuel tax does.
End Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and Davis-Bacon mandates on taxpayer-funded projects: PLAs require contractors to sign a collective bargaining agreement with workers for many taxpayer-funded construction projects. Congress should disallow federal agencies and grantees from creating cost-ballooning requirements for contractors to sign PLAs as a condition of winning taxpayer-funded construction contracts. Similarly, Congress should end the requirement that workers on federally funded transportation and infrastructure projects be paid no less than the prevailing wages in the area. Ending this Davis-Bacon mandate would reduce costs and treat nonunion workers more fairly.
Limit abuse of the Buy America Act and other domestic content requirements: Federal transportation projects should focus on getting the best value for taxpayers. Supplies and services provided by countries that are not foreign adversaries should be treated as domestic content to maximize taxpayer value. U.S. restrictions drive up costs and encourage other countries to impose retaliatory restrictions on American firms.
Create a “Rail Advocate”: Congress should consider creating a Rail Advocate that could serve the interests of all stakeholders in freight rail. In the past, Congress has recognized the imperative of creating entities that go beyond public liaison functions and toward serving as facilitators of dialogue and common expertise. The IRS National Taxpayer Advocate and the Office of Advocacy at the Small Business Administration are two such entities whose work NTU has wholeheartedly supported. A Rail Advocate could help to inform Congress’s policymaking in this complex area, especially on government barriers confronting rail customers like federal and state siting restrictions, inflexible environmental rules, or local property tax classification procedures. The Advocate could also help to document the time and compliance costs of rate regulation cases on all parties that utilize the Surface Transportation Board’s regulatory processes.
Require life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) for taxpayer-funded projects: One of the best cost-effectiveness provisions that should be a requirement on taxpayer-funded projects is life-cycle cost analysis. This is an important taxpayer guardrail that uses detailed accounting data to accurately estimate the total cost of a project, including initial construction, maintenance, resilience, and savings from alternative construction materials. In the past, NTU has supported bipartisan legislation to require LCCA on federally funded infrastructure projects above $30 million.
Encourage the use of competitive bidding: NTU endorses the approach proposed in the 2019 Sustainable Municipal Access to Resilient Technology in Infrastructure (SMART Infrastructure) Act. This would create an open, competitive bidding process for working with construction material suppliers on all future infrastructure projects that receive federal dollars from the Federal Highway Administration, Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Agriculture. As an NTU-led coalition put it in an open letter to lawmakers, “open competition in infrastructure procurement is a commonsense way for members of Congress to fulfill their obligation to act as responsible stewards of government resources.”
Discourage reciprocal switching requirements that undermine the benefits of rail deregulation: In the past, the Surface Transportation Board has considered a proposed rule on so-called reciprocal or competitive switching. This would require an incumbent railroad to serve a rival’s customers on its own facilities, with the non-incumbent railroad paying compensation. Moving forward with this approach would mark a significant departure from the deregulatory framework enacted in 1980 that has created enormous benefits for shippers, carriers, and consumers.
Promote reasonable tax reforms. For example, making permanent the full and immediate expensing provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) could help to deliver more certainty to private sector actors making capital expenditures in infrastructure.
These are the kinds of steps that will enhance the nation’s infrastructure while remaining mindful of rising pressure on federal finances. Unless brought under control, spiraling deficit spending will erase virtually any of the economic benefits that stronger infrastructure can provide. Simply enacting ever-higher federal expenditures on surface transportation, amid failures to prioritize existing spending and enable more private innovation, does not serve taxpayers or the economy.