DOT Sec. Duffy: ‘Infrastructure is bipartisan’

NAPA’s Government Affairs team attended a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing on April 2 where Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy opened his remarks by noting how infrastructure funding is a bipartisan issue.

The hearing, Constructing the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill: United States Secretary of Transportation’s Perspective, was billed as the first of two hearings aiming to guide the committee’s work on the next highway bill.

Chairman of EPW Committee Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) began the hearing by sharing her vision for the next surface transportation reauthorization bill, which she called simple, but important.

“We want to improve the movement of people and goods,” she said. “Our roads and bridges are what connect us to the people and places that matter most in our lives. They help American businesses, large and small, create jobs and economic opportunities, and enable that competitiveness in the global marketplace. They connect everything around us from Point A to Point B. Every state has transportation needs and stands to benefit from the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill.”

Capito lauded the bipartisan nature of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which is set to expire in September 2026, and her Democratic counterpart echoed that theme.

“I am eager to work on bipartisan permitting reform, and the scoping conversation with the Energy Committee has already begun. I am eager to do a robust bipartisan Water Resources bill and a robust
bipartisan highway reauthorization. These three, big bills could be transformational,” said EPW Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “The door is open, Mr. Secretary, to big bipartisan things for our
infrastructure. I encourage you to walk through.”

Duffy, who was confirmed to his post in a 77-22 Senate vote in late January, said he appreciated how the EPW Committee works across the aisle to achieve its goals.

“Infrastructure is bipartisan. It’s one of the unique spaces in our government where we all work together because our roads and bridges, our airplanes, our airports, the safety of our cars — is a bipartisan American issue, not a red or blue issue.” Duffy told the committee. “My aim over the course of this hearing is to provide you a sense of the administration’s priorities as we work together on surface transportation reauthorization and embark on what I hope will be the Golden Age of Transportation.”

Chairman of EPW Committee Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) continued to lay out her vision for the next highway reauthorization bill in her opening statement:

“Since the enactment of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the EPW Committee has reviewed and conducted oversight of the existing policies and programs. We’ve learned a lot about what is working and what isn’t.”

That effort has provided me with three key principles for the next bill. By focusing on these principles, I’m confident that we can work towards bipartisan legislation, as we have in the past, that will deliver results for the American people.

Principle One: Improving the safety and reliability of America’s surface transportation network with impactful investments. In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in the number and scope of federal transportation programs. These programs have often had duplicative purposes, and project availability and eligibility. This leads to an expensive and time-intensive process to get funding out the door that disrupts the focus of federal funding and lessens the impact that the legislation can make. As we craft the next Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill we must make investments that instead, optimize the impact of federal funding and give state partners the confidence that they can invest over a longer period of time. We should focus on eliminating duplicative programs that invite regulatory overreach and increase funding for the highway formula programs that our states rely on and have a proven track record of success.

Principle Two: Reforming and modernizing federal programs and policies to increase efficiency. We all know that as currently structured, federal requirements can add red-tape that increases costs and time, and slows down the completion of projects. We all want to deliver transportation benefits faster and save money for American taxpayers. To achieve this goal, we need to take a serious look at the federal requirements to determine how to make meaningful improvements to our planning and procurement procedures, our environmental review process for projects, and discretionary grants and loans requirements. By reforming and modernizing these requirements, we can create certainty for the partners who make these projects happen and ensure that the public receives the benefits of these needed investments quickly.
Principle Three: Addressing the variety of surface transportation needs across all states. Obviously, different states have different needs. I wouldn’t expect West Virginia, with our mountainous peaks and valleys, to prioritize the same transportation projects in other states in other parts of the country. By avoiding top-down mandates from Washington, and giving states flexibility to address the individual improvements, I think that is what we need to be looking at. The bill can support our common goals while ensuring that federal regulations, programs, and policies recognize the different needs in our states.

“It will take collaboration from my Senate colleagues, our stakeholders, and the Trump administration in order to complete the bill before the IIJA expires in September of 2026. We must be pragmatic, and work in a bipartisan way, as we have in the past, to develop a Senate bill that sets us up for a productive conversation on this reauthorization effort with our colleagues in the House.”