Senators introduce legislation for critical transportation infrastructure delivery
U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced the Transit for Urban Renewal and Business Opportunities Act (TURBO Act), which would expand and modernize a key federal financing tool used by state and local governments to deliver critical transportation infrastructure through public-private partnerships.
The TURBO Act would raise the national volume cap for qualified highway and surface transfer facilities from $30 billion to $45 billion, ensuring that critical transportation projects can continue to access low-cost financing through public-private partnerships. The bill would also expand the eligibility of mass commuting facility bonds to explicitly cover the acquisition of rolling stock, such as buses, railcars and ferries, lowering the cost of modernizing transit fleets and letting local communities determine their own infrastructure needs.
“Far too often, roads that need repaving and transportation facilities that need revamping are left unfixed because states and towns don’t have the funding they need,” said Duckworth. “Our bipartisan bill would help state and local governments supercharge their infrastructure financing, enabling them to deliver faster on projects, replace old buses, improve inter-city passenger rail and more. It’s critical we build on the incredible progress of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and this commonsense legislation would help us do just that.”
