Farm and shipping groups are generally happy with a House bill to reauthorize a slate of surface transportation programs, but trucking weight limits and rail safety measures remain points of contention.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members advanced a Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill Friday that would unlock more funding for local bridge projects, increase weight limits on interstate highways, and create a new revenue stream for a key funding source of infrastructure funding.
Committee Chair Sam Graves, R-Mo., said the legislation should make its way to the House floor “in the near future.” Meanwhile, Senate lawmakers have yet to unveil their version of the five-year legislation.
Under the bill, a funding program for bridge projects would jump from $5.5 billion to $9 billion and allow up to a 95% federal cost-share for locally owned bridge projects. Eryn Hurley, chief government affairs officer for the National Association of Counties, said this will enable more rural counties to access funding through the program and do maintenance “that they really need to do."
Ben Gilsdorf, NaCO associate legislative director, said in one county, school bus drivers have had to take a 20-mile detour due to concerns about a local bridge. He also said counties have struggled with the cost of replacing bridges. Bridge repair costs can easily cost millions, which he said has led to some county commissioners calling the structures “budget-busters.”
While roads in need of repair can generally be driven over or patched, bridges “have a pretty hard, firm point at which you can’t drive over them anymore,” he added.
Chuck Spencer, executive director for corporate and government relations at the agricultural cooperative Growmark, said the bill puts a “distinct emphasis” on improving first- and last-mile roads across the country. He added that it represents an increased effort to ensure funding goes toward highway maintenance and funding, as well as bridges.
Amid rising highway construction costs, the Highway Trust Fund has seen a reduction in purchasing power, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis. While the Highway Trust Fund draws revenue from taxes on gasoline, diesel and heavy vehicles, it has run a deficit since fiscal year 2006, and at times required transfers from the Treasury’s General Fund to remain functional.
The bill seeks to inject a new source of revenue into the fund by requiring states to collect annual registration fees on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. EVs would see a $130 registration fee, while plug-in hybrids would see $35 fees.
“All that money is needed,” said Richard Gupton, senior vice president of public policy at the Agricultural Retailers Association. He said the fees are “a start” in shoring up the Highway Trust Fund, which he noted has struggled securing funding as vehicles increasingly become more fuel-efficient.
Bill proposes adjustments to variance, interstate weight limits
The bill contains adjustments for weight variance, or how much weight is sitting on a particular axle. It would allow dry bulk transporters to put up to 110% of the maximum weight on any axle.
Spencer said this would make it easier for grain shippers to maintain compliance with road regulations. He noted that bulk goods like grain can shift positioning as a truck moves, which could lead to them being ticketed under current rules.
“It allows us to be within compliance and within the intent of complying and still have a possibility of a shifting load, which is something that we can't control when it comes to dry bulk goods like grain feed and fertilizer,” Spencer said.
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An amendment filed by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., that was added to the bill during last week’s markup also would allow states to raise weight limits to 91,000 pounds on federal interstates for vehicles with six axles through a voluntary pilot program. Spencer said ag retailers have been hoping for such a pilot program, noting that it could reduce the trips farmers need to take when hauling grain to elevators.
“Having more of a load increases efficiency, and it’s good for the supply chain overall,” Spencer said.
Tim Niedecken, CEO of the American Livestock Markets and Dealers Association, said livestock haulers also support the changes to weight limits, since they will allow shippers to haul more animals in one trip.
“It’s simple math,” he said. “Let’s move more tonnage over that same distance for the same price.”
However, Gilsdorf warned that increased weight limits could put further strain on roads and bridges, which could reduce their lifespans. In particular, he worries about the impact to bridges. Extra axles may help reduce the strain higher truck weights may have on roads, but it doesn’t change the vehicle’s gross weight, which can be a burden on bridges.
“When county-owned bridges are already twice as likely to be in poor condition when compared to state-owned bridges, the prospect of adding heavier trucks on top of that is something that really concerns a lot of county commissioners,” Gilsdorf said.
While it would be the interstate systems seeing the change in weight limit regulation, Gilsdorf said changing the federal limit could lead to states reconsidering weight limits on other roads, leading to “cascading impacts on local roads across the country.” He said this could impose a “hefty financial burden on a lot of counties who would have to make pretty immediate upgrades in order to handle that."
Bill seeks to smooth seasonal CDL process, extend Hours of Service allowances for livestock
The bill allows the Transportation Department to require states to develop online registration and renewal systems for the seasonally restricted CDL program, which is meant to allow agriculture industry employees temporary credentials to drive commercial vehicles in certain parts of the year.
Gupton said that 
Richard Gupton (LinkedIn photo)
during the COVID-19 pandemic, ag sector employees looking to renew their credentials faced challenges getting appointments. He said the changes should make the renewal process easier.
“We think it will be a lot more efficient versus having to drive to the Department of Motor Vehicles every year to have to renew that,” Gupton said.
The Seasonal CDL program allows farm sector workers to operate Class B or C commercial vehicles within a 150-mile radius of their business for 210 days each year without needing to take the tests normally required for CDLs. Twenty-seven states allow seasonal licenses through the program, according to a report from the Asmark Institute, a nonprofit that helps ag retailers with federal transportation, environmental and workforce regulation compliance.
The bill would codify exemptions for livestock haulers from electronic logging mandates and federal hours of service requirements if they are within a 150-air-mile radius from their destination. Hours-of-service rules don’t allow truckers to begin a driving shift until they have spent 10 consecutive hours off-duty, and they must rest again after 14 consecutive hours of driving.
The measure has the support of the National Pork Producers Council and other livestock organizations, who have expressed concern about impacts on animals if drivers were forced to stop for 10 hours mid-journey.
“We can’t just pull over and spend the night or spend the day if it’s the middle of the day and sit there with the pigs roasting inside the trailer,” said Michael Formica, NPPC's chief legal strategist.
Niedecken applauded the extension of current hours-of-service exemptions included in the bill, though he said he’d like to see them broadened for trips past a 150-air-mile radius. He also said he’d like to see the exemption made permanent rather than just reauthorized.
“We move animals over long distances — East Coast, West Coast, and everywhere in between,” he said. “We’re not talking about just cattle, we’re talking about sheep, goats and swine. So while the hours-of-service exemption is great, we need as much liberty as we possibly can to move these animals as quickly, safely and humanely as possible.”
Lawmakers last week added an amendment to the bill that included several rail safety reforms from the Rail Safety Act, a bill introduced after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Prior to the markup, President Donald Trump threw his weight behind the provisions, calling the East Palestine incident a “horrific tragedy.”
The measure would limit train speeds for trains carrying certain chemicals, require railroads to maintain real-time hazmat information, and require DOT to review the safety of growing train lengths. It also prevents railroads from limiting the time needed by employees to conduct safety inspections and requires most Class I freight trains to have at least one conductor and one locomotive engineer.
Ian Jefferies, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, argued the Rail Safety Act additions “will only increase costs throughout the freight network and broader supply chain with no proven safety benefit.”
Gupton said ARA supports the overall goal of improving rail safety, as well as provisions that deal with detective systems and provide more research funding. However, he said the organization is concerned about provisions on operational restrictions and speed limits, which he said could slow rail service.
“There's things in there down the road that could adversely impact the reliability of rail service and the timing of rail service in the ag sector for fertilizer and other products,” Gupton said.
