The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee held a hearing yesterday morning to review implementation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, or IIJA.
As part of the hearing, NACS sent a letter to the Committee members offering lessons learned from three IIJA programs: the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program; the Charging & Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) program; and the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot (SDAP) program.
The letter stated the following observations:
• The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program: Federal funding appropriated for NEVI grants has recently been called into question, causing confusion in the public and private sectors about which projects—if any—can move forward. Many of NACS’ members expended significant time and resources in reliance on the established NEVI frameworks, which in some cases require them to meet several years of post-construction milestones before their eligible expenses are fully reimbursed. Regardless of the future of NEVI overall, these businesses acted in good faith under the law as it then existed, and Congress should at least make provisions to keep them whole.
NACS also noted the ban on commercialized interstate rest areas and asked the committee to uphold the ban and not allow NEVI funding to be used for rest area charging infrastructure. “Our members rely on that ban to make considerable off-highway investments in the communities they serve, including investments in electric vehicle chargers through NEVI and otherwise. To protect these off-highway investments and the local economic benefits they bring, the current commercialization ban should be maintained without exception.”
• The Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant program was created by the IIJA with the intention of leveraging public/private partnerships to deploy new infrastructure for alternative sources of transportation energy. In practice, NACS is concerned that CFI-funded projects may instead be putting the public sector into active competition with existing private investments. Congress should ensure programs like CFI do not incentivize state and local governments to compete with businesses in this manner going forward.
• The Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot (SDAP) program was authorized by the IIJA to help alleviate the commercial driver shortage, but it required subsequent amendment after a burdensome agency implementation. While the SDAP concept enjoyed industry support, FHWA went on to impose substantial extra-statutory requirements that discouraged participation until Congress stepped in to overrule the agency. When establishing pilot programs like SDAP, which seek to leverage voluntary private action in response to a compelling public need, Congress should consider reasonable statutory guardrails to prevent similar instances of agency overreach.
In an opening statement during the hearing, Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) noted that "review of the real-world impacts of the IIJA and the feedback on what is working, and what isn’t working, will inform this Committee’s bipartisan work on the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization bill."
Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in his opening statement, called for the Trump administration to end the freeze on NEVI funding.
NACS Daily previously reported on the NEVI funding freeze earlier this month.