The Legislative and Regulatory Rundown

States Face Opportunities and Challenges as They Tackle Safety Challenges on the Road

By Adrienne Gildea, Deputy Executive Director, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance

As this column highlighted in the previous edition of Guardian, last year, Congress and the Biden Administration came to an agreement on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aka the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The legislation outlined a bold vision for national infrastructure investment over the next five years with a dramatic increase in funding for federal transportation programs, including those administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). That column also focused on the challenges jurisdictions will face in investing those new funds quickly and how best to have a measurable impact on combatting the alarming recent trends in roadway safety data.

Building on the historic investments included in the infrastructure bill and in response to the recent increase in crashes and roadway fatalities, in January the U.S. Department of Transportation launched its National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) (see page 22 for more information). The NRSS represents a shift to the Safe System approach to transportation planning and marks the department’s commitment to achieving the goal of zero roadway fatalities. The transportation safety community has a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the current heightened attention on and commitment to roadway safety at the federal level.

With this renewed focus and the increase in federal funds, the states are faced with the expectation that they will implement policies and programs that will swiftly and effectively improve safety on our roadways, reducing the occurrence and severity of crashes. The jurisdictions stand ready to do just that, expanding existing solutions and exploring new ideas and opportunities. However, as the dust begins to settle and work gets underway, an old, familiar roadblock stands on the horizon – delayed access to and a lack of stability in federal funding.

As of press time, Congress had approved yet another continuing resolution for fiscal 2022 funding, this time through mid-March, extending programs and funding levels at the fiscal 2021 funding levels, which are well below what was envisioned for fiscal 2022 based on the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. We will once again find ourselves midway through the year with no clear answer on when (or even if) the new approved funding levels will reach the jurisdictions.

CVSA has long written about, testified to and asked for assistance with the delays in getting federal funds out to the states each year. In order to maintain effective programs, states need to be able to plan long term. FMCSA cannot award funds until an appropriations bill is in place – a process that regularly sees delays well into the fiscal year. These delays leave states unsure of final funding levels, which makes it difficult to plan and structure a program. This is a challenge states have come to expect and around which program managers do their best to adjust.

However, this year, this longstanding problem is exacerbated by the tremendous discrepancy between the two possible funding levels. States are essentially being asked to develop and be prepared to implement two different sets of programs, depending on when or if the funds become available.

And the problem doesn’t go away once the fiscal 2022 funding questions are answered. State program managers will have to decide how confident they are that the higher funding levels are sustainable beyond the current bill cycle. Will Congress maintain these high funding levels when the next appropriations bill is passed or will funding drop down to more moderate levels? How do the states set up programs that are agile enough to respond to any future funding changes?

This uncertainty will continue to limit the ability of jurisdictions to fully realize the potential for increased road safety offered by the infrastructure bill. As mentioned, this uncertainty has long been a challenge for the states. It has merely been made more prominent this year. It is imperative that Congress and others work to find a long-term solution that allows states to refocus their efforts on meeting program goals rather than on figuring out how to sustainably structure programs without secure funding.

Like the challenges outlined in the last edition of this column, this challenge of planning for unpredictable funding levels and timing is real, but not unsolvable. It’s imperative that those with the ability to address this challenge work to find a way to provide states with more stability and continuity. The commercial motor vehicle safety community does not want to miss this opportunity to serve the shared mission of reducing crashes, injuries and fatalities on our roadways. n