Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House passed legislation today to strengthen the transportation infrastructure that Americans rely on every day. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act reauthorizes and reforms federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs.  This bipartisan legislation included two amendments from U.S. Representative Scott Perry (PA-4) to improve roadway safety and remove government obstacles to job creation.

The FAST Act is a five-year bill designed to improve the Nation’s surface transportation infrastructure, reform programs, maintain a strong commitment to safety, and promote innovation.  A long-term transportation bill provides the certainty state and local governments and the private sector need to undertake large-scale, complex transportation projects. The FAST Act also: 

- Provides flexibility for states to invest in bridge rehabilitation and replacement;

- Eliminates red tape that slows down infrastructure improvements;

- Streamlines the environmental review process to cut red tape and accelerate project delivery;

- Provides more flexibility to states and local governments to allow them to better address their priorities;

- Eliminates and consolidates offices within the Department of Transportation; and

- Reforms truck and bus safety programs and eases administrative burdens on small businesses. 

“This transportation bill is an important investment in our country. Everyone can see that our infrastructure is crumbling around us, and this bill starts the process of finally doing something about it. The five-year, fully funded bill will help sustain and improve our highways, bridges, railroads, and other vital transit systems. We realized that coming to an agreement on this measure would be challenging, but every member of the Conference Committee was up to the task. As a Conferee, I was happy to work with Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member DeFazio, and my Senate Colleagues on reforming and improving programs that sustain our roads, bridges, transit, and passenger rail system.”

The bill included two amendments sponsored by Rep. Perry. The first adds training for the installation and maintenance of guardrail systems as an eligible activity under the Work Zone Safety Grant.  Guardrail systems are proven roadway safety countermeasures that save the lives of the motoring public every day; however, when these systems are installed or maintained improperly, their safety value is decreased. Additional training helps ensure these systems are installed correctly, thereby protecting drivers. The amendment costs no additional taxpayer money and was co-sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT-5) and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL-3). 

The second amendment was incorporated from legislation Rep. Perry introduced earlier this year (H.R. 2077), which requires a comprehensive study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) of minimum financial responsibility requirements for motor carriers of passengers.

The FMCSA has a pending rulemaking that potentially could increase school bus contractors' insurance rates by over 400% without any study or analysis of the issue. School buses are the very safest form of transportation according to DOT's own statistics and this amendment prevents the government from unilaterally raising insurance minimums and protects privately owned motorcoach and school bus companies, many of them small businesses. 

The FAST Act is expected to be approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Obama. Learn more about the bill here: http://transportation.house.gov/fast-act/.