As part of the Republican National Convention last week, the Republican Party released its platform, which lays out its vision for the next four years. Party platforms are general documents that contain principles and ideas intended to be the respective parties’ vision for the country and their priorities, rather than a strategic legislative agenda of what can actually pass and be enacted. A copy of the document can be found here.
The GOP platform contains a number of transportation proposals.
In an effort to help shore up transportation funding, it calls for removing from the Highway Trust Fund “programs that should not be in the business of the federal government,” such as mass transit. Calling mass transit “an inherently local affair that serves only a small portion of the population,” it recommends phasing out all federal funding for transit. There is, in fact, pending legislation (H.R. 1551) in the U.S. House of Representatives that would phase-out federal transit funding, but the bill is stalled in committee and has only garnered the support of ten republican cosponsors.
Likewise, it calls for discontinuing federal funding for some other non-highway programs, including bike-share programs, sidewalks, recreational trails, landscaping, and historical renovations, and scenic byways.
The party comes out against an increase in the federal gas tax, suggesting that “most states are increasing their own funding for transportation.” The opposition to a gas tax increase is not surprising given that many Republicans and some Democrats have said that they don’t support an increase.
Notably, the GOP platform suggests that public-private partnerships are key to upgrading the nation’s aging infrastructure. “Recognizing that, over time, additional revenue will be needed to expand the carrying capacity of roads and bridges, we will remove legal roadblocks to public-private partnership agreements that can save the taxpayers’ money and bring outside investment to meet a community’s needs,” Republicans wrote.
Republicans also propose to reform provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, which can delay and drive up costs for transportation projects. Additionally, they renew their call for repeal of the 1931 Davis-Bacon law that forces contractors working on federally funded construction projects to pay their workers local union wages, which Republicans argue rip off American taxpayers and “limits employment and drives up construction and maintenance costs for the benefit of unions.”
Among the platform’s other transportation proposals, it says that Amtrak is “extremely expensive railroad for the American taxpayers, who must subsidize every ticket” and calls for allowing private entities to operate passenger service in the northeast corridor. They say the same holds true for cutting off federal aid “for boondoggles like California high-speed train to nowhere.”
Even if Republicans take control of the White House in November, these proposals, if formally introduced, would still face an uphill climb unless the upcoming election yields a wider Senate Republican majority, which forecasters say isn’t likely.
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