U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) recently introduced legislation that would improve the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program.
The program authorizes the Department of Transportation to provide funding to organizations for rehabilitating or building rail yards, track, bridges, and other support structures. Only $8.2 billion in loans have been issued since 2000.
The Invest in American Railroads Act would make it easier to enable state and local governments and private groups to use the fund to upgrade rail infrastructure and develop new rail facilities and lines.
Reps. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) and Chris Pappas (D-NH) also introduced the bill.
“My community’s connection to passenger rail along the busy Northeast Corridor and a strong regional rail system has served as a magnet for business development, creating high-paying family-sustaining jobs across my district,” Smucker said. “Addressing America’s aging infrastructure is a bipartisan issue in Congress, and I am pleased to join my colleagues Reps. Kuster and Pappas to work together to reform RRIF to provide billions of dollars in new investment in passenger and regional railroads. The reforms included in the Invest in American Railroads Act will ensure that existing grant programs and rail infrastructure programs are working to their fullest potential for the American taxpayer,”