Takeaways from AASHTO’s Washington Briefing

Last week, state transportation officials met in Washington, D.C. at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Washington Briefing.  The four-day program involved discussions and information exchanges among executives from the state Departments of Transportation, key Congressional leaders, Congressional staff, federal transportation leaders from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), and numerous public and private sector stakeholders.  This year’s meeting shifted from last year’s celebratory tone of new infrastructure investment to a focus on implementation challenges of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and priorities of the state and federal participants.

Here are the key takeaways from the meeting.

• Lots of IIJA money remains to be pledged to projects and spent in coming years. Many in Congress are focused on ensuring that USDOT implements IIJA efficiently and effectively. The large increase in discretionary and competitive grant programs and new eligibility for many of these funding programs are viewed by many as challenges to speedy implementation. The time it takes to select projects for grant awards, and then to complete funding obligations and agreements, have added a level of uncertainty to project planning in some cases. And new grant applicants need to be better prepared. There is a need to ensure eligibility status is understood early and upfront, as well as better understanding of local match and other federal requirements.
• States need flexibility in implementing federal programs to ensure differing state and local needs are adequately addressed. Some suggest Congress’ role in the federal transportation program should be to set guardrails in the legislation and then step back. Implementation flexibility for all states is essential since local needs and solutions vary significantly from state to state. Interests from both sides of the aisle praised the reissuance of the December 2021 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) memo that walks back the “fix-it-first” direction, to be open to highway expansion as well.
• Safety is an imperative that everyone endorses for serious action. USDOT’s National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) captured much attention for its aim to eliminate highway fatalities and its system approach to advancing solutions and outcomes. Addressing speeding on our roadways and reducing risky behavior are essential priorities. Vehicle data may generate insights into how road design, operating practices, and technology can be used to enhance safety. The federal safety focus extends to rail and pipeline safety as well.
• Partnerships are essential to making the federal programs most effective. These include non-traditional partners from private sector organizations, energy and utility companies, start-ups, and social service organizations. New partners can push greater integration of transportation with public policy interests in housing, energy, land use, and the environment. Learning about successful and unsuccessful business approaches is one aim of new IIJA programs, such as the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. Risk-taking and early failures are considered learning opportunities. Keeping with the theme of non-traditional partners, AASHTO signed onto the Equity in Infrastructure Project to create more opportunities for historically underutilized businesses in contracting and procurement.
• It’s not too early to consider how to set the stage for the next federal surface transportation program reauthorization. States and other grant recipients must tell their stories to Congress about how they are spending federal dollars and what the benefits have been. Congress needs to understand the value of the surface transportation program to bolster an understanding of the value of the program for future reauthorization discussions. The number of new members of Congress heightens the need to communicate benefits of federal investment.
• Tolling and road pricing received recognition as needing consideration as future transportation revenue options. Tolling was cited as an example of how to prepare states for greater infrastructure investment through greater flexibility. It was suggested that states should have the ability to explore tolling as a revenue tool without federal restrictions if it fits their local interests and needs. Advice from Congressional staff for federal programs after IIJA was to focus on the insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund and the impacts of electric vehicle adoption on diminished gas tax revenue. The lack of action on IIJA programs on distance-based road use charges was criticized. There were calls for USDOT to begin the Strategic Innovation for Revenue Collection for state and local research and demonstrations on distance-based road charges and the National Vehicle-Miles Traveled (VMT) Fee Pilot. The federal deficit and privacy were recognized as issues that will impact how new revenue programs advance after IIJA concludes.