Hill Heat

A subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on the FY2025 budget request for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Witness:

• Pete Buttigieg, Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation

The FY 2025 Budget requests $109.3 billion. When combined with $36.8 billion in guaranteed advance appropriations provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Department’s total budget for FY 2025 will be $146.2 billion.

FAA Electric Vehicle Fleet: $4.9 million and 1 FTE are requested for construction, installation, and upgrading and maintaining electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure at FAA owned and leased facilities.

NextGen Environmental Research: $71.0 million is requested to support efforts to develop new aircraft and engine technologies, as well as to advance sustainable aviation fuels in line with the Administration commitments on climate change and the environment

Alternative Fuels – General Aviation: $8.4 million is requested to support continuing analyses and testing of unleaded alternative candidate fuels leading to the replace- ment of current leaded aviation gasoline with safe unleaded alternative fuels.

Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) Program: $1.8 billion is requested for formula and com- petitive grants to make the country’s surface transportation system more resilient to the worsening impacts of climate change, reduce long-term costs by minimizing demands for more expensive future maintenance, and rebuilding and prioritizing the needs of disadvantaged communities that are often the most vulnerable to hazards. • Carbon Reduction Program: $1.3 billion is requested to reduce transportation emissions through the development of State carbon reduction strategies and by funding projects designed to reduce transportation emissions. Through this program, FHWA encourages recipients to fund projects that support fiscally responsible land use and transportation efficient design, electrification, or other zero emission vehicle infrastructure, climate change resilience, and environmental justice.

Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities: $50.0 million is requested, along with $30.0 million in BIL advance appropriations, to support projects that reduce emissions from idling trucks at our Nation’s ports, which negatively impact air quality for surrounding communities. These investments will save truck drivers time and money, help ports reduce congestion and emissions, and deliver better air quality for workers and communities alike. • Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program: $2.7 billion is requested to support transporta- tion investments that reduce highway congestion and harmful emissions, which greatly impact quality of life, particularly for densely populated communities. By helping to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which act as a public health benchmark for many of the densely populated areas of the country, this program helps to improve environmental outcomes for traditionally under- served communities. • Emergency Relief Program: $100.0 million to help restore and repair roads and bridges following disasters or catastrophic failures. Through this program, FHWA often provides “quick release” funds shortly after an event to help restore essential transportation. Additional funding is often provided to complete restoration projects and better prepare the infrastructure for future weather events.

Zero-Emission Rail Yards pilot: The Budget proposes to launch a new initiative to reduce EPA criteria pollutant emissions at rail yards, with an emphasis on areas with high pollution impacts on surrounding communities. R&D funds will be used to conduct research and testing to build evidence and document the public health impacts rail yards currently have on surrounding communities, as well as iden- tify the rail yards and communities most in need of inter- vention. Simultaneously, FRA will seek to partner with a rail yard to pilot the establishment of a Zero-Emission Rail Yard and use CRISI grants to fund the purchase of new switcher locomotives and upgrade rail infrastructure to improve the efficiency of yard operations.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s FY 2025 Budget request is $400.6 million. PHMSA oversees the safety and environmental impacts of a growing domestic pipeline network of more than 3.3 million miles, which moves and stores 20 billion barrels of crude oil, other hazardous liquids, and natural gas, as well as an increasing amount of carbon dioxide and hydrogen products, from sources across the U.S. to our homes and businesses and to export.

Pipeline Safety: PHMSA requests $203.6 million to develop pipeline safety standards, encourage the use of safety manage- ment systems, conduct safety inspections, investigate pipeline incidents, and conduct research to inform safety regulations, policies, and technology development and deployment. This funding will enable PHMSA to focus on improving the safe transportation of hydrogen, CO2 , and other emerging clean energy products, incentivized in both the BIL and the Inflation Reduction Act, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

Hazardous Materials Safety: PHMSA requests $86.6 million to set safety standards and continue to oversee the safe packaging and shipping of hazardous materials, with a commitment to support underserved communities that bear a disproportionate share of hazardous material routes, and to train local first responders on how to respond when incidents occur. The request includes the hiring of additional staff to manage a growing special permits and approvals workload including the transportation of high value hazardous materials containing products bound for outer space, and a rapidly growing outer space economy. PHMSA will increase outreach, training and compliance, accident investigation, and provide emerging energy experts, bringing the hazardous materials safety program to scale with the increase in energy products classified as hazmat. This will address a boom in new and expanded E-commerce companies shipping products containing otherwise hazardous materials, large-scale movements of medical equipment and biohazards, a surge in lithium battery packaging and movement, and new energy products such as hydrogen and other cryogenics being shipped by truck and rail.

Emergency Preparedness Grants: PHMSA requests use of all collections, including an estimated $46.8 million in registration fees, to help communities develop hazardous materials emer- gency response plans and train their first responders to safely manage and remediate hazardous material shipping incidents and accidents. These emergency preparedness and response resources are particularly critical for underserved rural and urban communities. Operational Expenses: PHMSA requests $32.6 million for operational expenses to support the safety management organization, including $4.5 million for grants to those commu- nities most impacted by large-scale commercial pipelines and pipeline facilities. In addition, the request supports additional civil rights positions to ensure all of PHMSA’s programs and financial assistance meet statutory requirements.

Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META): $6.0 million will support technical assistance and innovation to address critical maritime environmental issues, thereby advancing climate sustainability priority initiatives through alternative energies and technologies, while also supporting job growth in clean energy and maritime trans- portation fields. META seeks to augment the American maritime industry’s competitive edge by making maritime transportation more technologically advanced, energy efficient, safe, affordable, and sustainable.