Rep. Ben Cline demands answers from Secretary Buttigieg, Federal Highway Admin on preventing use of infrastructure funds for highway expansion

WASHINGTON – On October 4, 2022, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA-06) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Acting Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Stephanie Pollack demanding a complete breakdown of how funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has been used, following reports that FHWA issued guidance that would put projects designated to expand highway capacity at the back of the line for approval.

The letter was co-signed by Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN-03), who is Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-OR-02), Congressman Van Taylor (R-TX-03), Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX-02), Congressman Brian Mast (R-FL-18), and Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX-14).

“During a time of 40-year high inflation, a crippling supply chain, and higher prices of goods and services, the Biden administration is prioritizing infrastructure funds for Green New Deal projects over highway expansion,” said Congressman Cline. “Americans need transparency from this administration to ensure their tax dollars are being properly used.”

“The American people deserve to know if President Biden is using taxpayer dollars to secretly implement liberal green new deal policies. I am glad to partner with Congressman Cline to protect taxpayers and demand transparency from this radical administration,” said Congressman Jim Banks, Republican Study Committee Chairman.

“With families across the country continuing to deal with a supply chain crisis that has kept everything from baby formula to appliances off the shelves, the Biden Administration needs to get their priorities straight by focusing on what matters to the American people instead of wasting more dollars on a radical, far-left agenda,” said Congressman Brian Mast.

“Not only is the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act ridden with Green New Deal priorities, but it does so at the expense of critical, traditional infrastructure such as highway capacity projects. As a result, rural communities dependent on surface transportation bear the brunt. The Biden Administration must be held accountable for this blatant effort to further the left’s climate agenda,” said Congressman Cliff Bentz.

Read the full letter below.

Dear Secretary Buttigieg and Acting Administrator Pollack,

We write today to request an immediate update regarding the impacts of Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) December 2021 guidance on the use of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding.

The American public already knows that much of the IIJA’s $1 trillion are reserved for projects designed to advance a Green New Deal agenda instead of actual infrastructure, such as the $66 billion in taxpayer giveaways to bloated and incompetent public transit systems, $65 billion to add expensive green energy to the grid, $50 billion for loosely defined “climate resilience”, $21.5 billion for demonstration projects related to intermittent and expensive energy sources, and $7.5 billion for stations to charge expensive electric vehicles, among hundreds of billions in other wasteful spending. What they may not know is, according to the guidance, the Biden administration also intends to hamstring funding that is designated for traditional infrastructure, such as roads and highways, in the name of those liberal goals.

Specifically, the guidance states the FHWA “where permitted by law, [will] require…recipients of Federal highway funding to select projects that improve the condition and safety of existing transportation infrastructure within the right-of-way before advancing projects that add new general purpose travel lanes serving single occupancy vehicles.”1 This policy puts projects that would expand highway capacity at the back of the line for approval and discriminates against communities that rely on surface transportation—rural communities in particular. Further, while the guidance exempts projects favored by green special interests such as bicycle lanes from any further NEPA approvals, it singles out highway capacity projects for “…more scrutiny under NEPA.”

Perhaps most troubling is the fact the Biden administration is intentionally preventing the use of highway funds to expand highway capacity and promote economic growth when it has just driven our nation into a recession and caused record inflation.

We request that the FHWA provide a comprehensive breakdown of funding awarded to date under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Specifically, please provide the total awarded funding for projects that do not add general purpose travel lanes compared with total funding for projects that add general purpose travel lanes. Further, we request a comprehensive list detailing the status of project applications that would add new purpose travel lanes that have yet to be approved by the Federal Highway Administration. Please provide this information by October 20, 2022.