Transportation and Infrastructure

The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law represents historic investment. For too long, the structures that support the movement of free enterprise and families have been frail and failing. As we work to ensure the law is implemented successfully, we also have to ensure that we take all necessary actions to keep supply chains running. As national and international supply chain disruptions have made painfully clear, maintaining and modernizing our infrastructure is essential to keeping products moving and manufacturers operating.

“There is nothing more satisfying than connecting with, supporting and empowering our customers and dealers day in and day out. To ensure our products arrive at the customer site, we rely on roads, bridges, rails, airports, ports and waterways. Modern and efficient transportation systems allow us to do the work—the efficient flow of materials to suppliers, of parts in and out of our manufacturing plants and, ultimately, of products to our customer site is heavily dependent on our transportation systems.”

—Denise Johnson, Group President of Resource Industries

Manufacturers' Priorities

  1. 1
    Modernize user fees, such as the federal fuels tax and passenger facility charge, that support roadway and runway projects.
  2. 2
    Continue to accelerate forward-looking solutions that prioritize and reduce inventory of the growing backlog of essential infrastructure projects
  3. 3
    Continue to improve the broken permitting and approval system that adds years of unnecessary delays and costs to projects.
  4. 4
    Address the truck driver shortage by advancing proposals that would harmonize interstate truck driver age minimums with current intrastate requirements.
  5. 5
    Keep transportation regulatory agendas in check so critical transportation services that manufacturers rely on are not hampered by additional red tape.
  6. 6
    Prevent unnecessary patchwork regulations that disrupt manufacturing supply chains.
  7. 7
    Build on the success of public–private partnerships while recognizing that not all solutions work everywhere. Maintaining core funding sources and a federal role ensures equity and provides a path to addressing all types of projects.