Key members of Congress and U.S. Department of Transportation leaders spoke at an event held at USDOT’s Washington, D.C., headquarters on July 17 to outline how all industry stakeholders can help in the reauthorization effort for federal surface transportation funding – especially as current reauthorization legislation is set to expire in September 2026.
[Above photo by USDOT]
Sean McMaster – USDOT senior advisor and President Trump’s nominee to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration – served as the moderator for the event and stressed that the reauthorization bill serves as a “huge opportunity” to shape the future of transportation. “It offers an opportunity to build American infrastructure safer, faster, and more efficiently than ever before,” he said.
USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy noted in his remarks at the event that the U.S. must “do better and can do better” in terms of building transportation infrastructure.
“We’ve embarked on three and half years of truly transformative work on the nation’s transportation system,” he noted. “This is an exciting time in transportation and it’s especially exciting because we are getting everyone together. We want to hear from you, the stakeholders, because it is our partnership with you that will make this a success.”
That especially includes “enhancing our relationship” with state departments of transportation to help accelerate and simplify project delivery, Duffy stressed.
[Editor’s note: Duffy made similar remarks in a July 16 hearing before House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.]
Steven Bradbury, USDOT deputy secretary, noted that the agency is getting started early on the reauthorization process not only to engage all the industry’s stakeholders in this effort but gather many ideas together on how best to improve the nation’s transportation systems as well.
“We want to be a clearinghouse of information, so that is why we’ll soon be releasing a ‘Request for Information’ in the Federal Register,” he explained at the event. “We are opening the door to ideas.”
[Editor’s note: As part of that “door opening” effort, the FHWA hosted a roundtable with state department of transportation executives at the USDOT reauthorization event to get state-level perspective on national transportation needs. Issues discussed at that roundtable included ensuring that 95 percent of Highway Trust Funds are disbursed via formula funding to states and transit agencies; encouraging states to take on NEPA assignment; and allowing for maximum flexibility and transferability of federal funding between state highway programs.]
Bradbury noted that Congress will have a significant role in the reauthorization process, especially in terms of how transportation can improve the quality of life for communities across the country – a view strongly endorsed by Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), chairman of the House T&I Committee, at the event.
“Once we got the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ passed, our priority became surface reauthorization,” he said. “Stakeholder and [Congressional] member input will be critical to our reauthorization effort. We’re also going back to the basics with this reauthorization bill, focusing on formula funding, cutting red tape, fixing the Highway Trust Fund, and giving states more flexibility.”
Rep. Graves stressed that he is setting an “aggressive timetable” for reauthorization as well; a goal also championed by Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC), chairman of the House T&I’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
“We want to get this done and we want to get this done right,” he said at the event. “Our infrastructure should reflect the greatness that is America.”
