Leadership on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will feature some familiar faces in the 119th Congress.
As reported last week, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., will again serve as the committee chairman. Additionally, it was announced this week that Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., will resume his role as ranking member.
“It is an honor to be selected to continue serving as ranking member of the T&I Committee,” Larsen said in a statement. “This Congress, I worked with my colleagues on T&I to implement bipartisan laws that create good-paying jobs and improve America’s infrastructure. I look forward to continuing this work in the next Congress alongside Chairman Graves and to passing bipartisan legislation that will keep people and the economy moving while creating safer, cleaner, greener and more accessible transportation.”
Leadership on the T&I Committee is all the more important as Congress will soon begin work on the next highway bill.
“The Committee will hit the ground running in 2025,” Graves said. “Our work will include working with President Trump to advance his infrastructure priorities, developing the next long-term surface transportation reauthorization and reprioritizing policies that are consistent with the core purpose of infrastructure in the first place – moving people and goods safely and efficiently throughout our country.”
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association will focus on getting pro-trucker priorities into the next highway bill.
One of the issues at the top of the list is the lack of truck parking nationwide.
In recent years, OOIDA has worked with Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., to introduce the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act. As written in the previous session, the bill would provide $755 million toward the construction of truck parking spots.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the bipartisan Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act. However, the bill never made it to the House floor for a vote.
OOIDA is committed to taking the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act to the finish line in the next two years.
“The truck parking bill was passed by the House T&I Committee (in 2024),” said Collin Long, OOIDA’s director of government affairs. “We had a hard time getting it to the House floor, but with Chairman Graves returning to lead T&I in the new year, we anticipate some success on truck parking again. We will certainly get it through committee, but with a highway bill being crafted, we want to make sure this is one of Chairman Graves’ top priorities for trucking policies to include in that highway bill.” LL
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