The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, following a 14-hour legislative markup, approved H.R. 8870, the BUILD America 250 – a bipartisan, five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that invests in America’s roads, bridges, transit, rail transportation, and highway and motor carrier safety programs.

The BUILD America 250 (Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th) Act emphasizes moving people, goods, and freight safely and efficiently across the country. The bill provides the largest ever investment in America’s bridges, focuses on proven surface transportation infrastructure programs, provides passenger rail investments and reforms, improves rail safety, ensures that transportation projects and programs are more efficient, encourages innovation, provides the first ever autonomous commercial motor vehicle framework, and injects the Highway Trust Fund with its first new stream of revenue in over three decades.

“The purpose of the BUILD America 250 Act is right there in its name. We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of our nation and the infrastructure that has helped form it, and this bill is about building the infrastructure we need for America’s future,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO). “This bill makes historic investments in our bridges and other critical infrastructure, reduces costs and delays in building, ensures states have the resources and flexibility they need, bolsters the Highway Trust Fund, fosters innovation, and provides a framework for safely integrating autonomous commercial motor vehicles onto our highways. I want to thank all the Committee Members on both sides of the aisle for the longs hours of debate they put in today on this vital legislation. I look forward to moving this bill on the House floor in the near future, and to working with the Senate to pass a final bill before the current law expires on September 30th.”

“You can’t have a big-league economy with little-league infrastructure,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA). “The BUILD America 250 Act will create good paying jobs while restoring aging bridges, repairing crumbling roads, and supporting safe, accessible rail, transit and bike infrastructure. My top priority this Congress was building on the momentum that the last bipartisan infrastructure law created for our transportation system and our economy and that’s exactly what the BUILD America 250 Act does. I want to thank Chairman Graves for his partnership and all my colleagues on the committee for their input and support. I look forward to swift passage by the full House.”