Senate Infrastructure Hearings Light on Climate Considerations

Last week, two Senate committees convened hearings on transportation and infrastructure. On June 3, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) led the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in a hearing on The State of Transportation and Critical Infrastructure: Examining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The following day, on June 4, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, chaired by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), held a hearing entitled Infrastructure: The Road to Recovery. During both hearings, witnesses and Members of Congress addressed the impacts of COVID-19 on the transportation sector, and witnesses advocated for a robust federal infrastructure package to spur economic recovery from the pandemic.

While each witness urged Congress to fast-track infrastructure funding, they also emphasized the importance of long-term investment over a focus on short-term extensions or shovel-ready projects. Witnesses were in favor of funding to help protect transportation workers from COVID-19, for instance, to pay for personal protective equipment (PPE) and increased access to testing. The legislation would also authorize funding to repair roads and bridges, build new transportation routes, and improve water infrastructure. Witnesses stressed that long-term investment in infrastructure and transportation would ensure dependable jobs and connect communities while stimulating the U.S. economy.

Though speakers highlighted the importance of future thinking for the nation's infrastructure, the hearings did not address the challenges or solutions associated with climate change, the environment, or renewable energy. The absence of these topics is notable because long-term investments in infrastructure, such as the ones that the witnesses propose, are the investments most likely to be impacted by climate change. Lack of discussion on these topics also contrasts with the Senate’s most recent major infrastructure legislation, the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 (S. 2302), which contains a Climate Title and funding for natural infrastructure.

Concurrent with these hearings, on June 3, the House Democrats released their nearly $500 billion green transportation and infrastructure bill, a decisive step towards rethinking American transportation and infrastructure, which includes provisions on public transit, electric vehicle charging stations, and a new greenhouse gas emissions standard.

This influx of hearings and legislation signals yet another effort to elevate infrastructure as a priority for the 116th Congress. As this work continues, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on resilient infrastructure solutions that reduce threats to human and environmental health would enable Congress to address multiple problems simultaneously, while jumpstarting the economy, creating new jobs, and promoting equitable development of communities.

Author: Maeve Arthur