Central ND News

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began the process of developing the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill with a hearing in Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy testified, representing the Trump Administration's priorities. Secretary Duffy, prior to his current role, served Wisconsin’s 7th district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer, the chair of the Senate EPW Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, questioned Secretary Duffy regarding the effectiveness of the One Federal Decision framework, which was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The framework aimed to streamline the permitting process, setting deadlines and reducing repetitive reviews to expedite infrastructure projects.

Senator Cramer emphasized, “One of the things we did put in the current bill is codifying the One Federal Decision rule of the first Trump administration, and yet I haven't seen a great application of that for the last four years in the permitting of a lot of these projects either.”

He further stated, “We do have to streamline the process even further with One Federal Decision taking the full meaning of the legislation in the language.”

Cramer discussed the importance of distributing highway funds to states via a set formula to ensure money does not solely funnel to populated areas. He supported EPW Committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito’s emphasis on maintaining this approach in the reauthorization bill. He highlighted the crucial role infrastructure plays in rural states, facilitating the movement of goods and people nationwide. Cramer illustrated his point by mentioning that routes like I-94 are essential for products such as durum wheat from North Dakota to be transported and turned into pasta in New York.

Cramer elaborated, “I know the political realities of it as well, but I would just be interested in you, coming from the middle of America in a pretty rural district, if you could just elaborate maybe a little bit on that commitment to formula funding in the next bill as well, helping people understand formula funding recognizes that the miles of road are just about as important as how many people are in any particular mile of that road?”

He concluded, “We can't focus on urban centers, and forget rural America,” emphasizing a holistic approach to building infrastructure. “Making sure that again, a lot of products come from the places where we live and they might move from roads to trains to ships, but making sure that there's a complete view of infrastructure is incredibly important. And I would share the view of this committee, I think that we have to have a holistic view of how we build out infrastructure.”