H.R. 8870

BUILD America 250 Act

Sponsor: Sam Graves

5 cosponsors
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Official summary

Written by the Congressional Research Service.

Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America's 250th Act or the BUILD America 250 Act

This bill authorizes federal surface transportation (highway, public transportation, and rail) programs and activities through FY2031. The bill also establishes or modifies Department of Transportation (DOT) programs and policies that are a part of the federal-aid highway, transit, highway safety, motor carrier, research, hazardous materials, and rail programs. 

For example, the bill authorizes appropriations through FY2031 out of the Highway Trust Fund for the federal-aid highway program, the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, highway safety programs, and bridge programs. The bill also authorizes funding through FY2031 for Amtrak. Current authorization for these programs expires on September 30, 2026.

Among other provisions, the bill

  • establishes a Surface Transportation Accelerator Grant (STAG) discretionary program to fund surface transportation projects in rural, urban, local, and regional communities;
  • requires the Federal Highway Administration to impose a new annual electric vehicle (EV) registration fee, starting at $130 for a covered EV and $35 for a covered plug-in hybrid vehicle;
  • exempts automated driving system technology and equipment from vehicle width requirements;
  • establishes a consolidated state block grant program that allows DOT to allocate a lump sum to participating states to fund public transportation services in rural and urbanized areas;
  • allows state rail safety inspectors to conduct railroad bridge inspections; and
  • establishes a system for state, local, and tribal governments to report safety concerns about the condition of railroad bridges.

Text of the bill

Expand all

I Federal-Aid Highways

A Authorizations and Programs

B Improved Project Delivery and Environmental Streamlining

C Miscellaneous

II Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation

III Public Transportation

A Reforms

B Miscellaneous

C Reorganization and Consolidation of Chapter 53

IV Highway Safety

V Motor Carriers

A General Provisions

B Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators

C Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety

D Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Reform

E Safe Integration of Autonomous Commercial Motor Vehicles

VI Innovation

VII Freight and Multimodal Transportation Programs

A Freight Policy

B Multimodal Policy and Programs

VIII Miscellaneous

IX Sport Fishing and Recreational Boating Safety

X Railroads and Hazardous Materials

A Authorization of Appropriations and Grant Reforms

B Amtrak Reforms

C Passenger Rail Policy

D Rail Safety and Innovation

E Project Delivery

F Hazardous Materials Transportation

Sec. 10611. Safer tank cars

(a) Phase-out schedule. Beginning on December 31, 2028, no railroad tank car, regardless of the construction date of the railroad tank car, may be used to transport Class 3 flammable liquid in packing groups II or III (other than Class 3 flammable liquids listed in paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 7304(b) of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2015 (49 U.S.C. 20155 note)), regardless of the composition of the train consist, unless such tank car meets or exceeds DOT–117, DOT–117P, or DOT–117R specification requirements, as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act.

(b) Conforming regulatory amendments

(1) In General. The Secretary—

(A) shall immediately remove or revise the date-specific deadlines in any applicable regulations or orders to the extent necessary to conform with the requirement under subsection (a); and

(B) may not enforce any date-specific deadlines or requirements that are inconsistent with the requirement under subsection (a).

(2) Rule of construction. Except as required under paragraph (1), nothing in this section may be construed to require the Secretary to issue regulations to implement this section.

(c) Amending the phase-out date. If the Secretary, based on the data contained in the report issued pursuant to subsection (d), determine that the phase-out date under subsection (a) cannot be met due to insufficient manufacturing capacity or would otherwise result in significant impacts to interstate commerce, the Secretary shall delay the phase-out scheduled under subsection (a) to May 1, 2029.

(d) GAO review. Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall issue a report to the Secretary, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate that—

(1) identifies the manufacturing capacity of tank car manufacturers in North America that manufacture tank cars to meet DOT–117 or DOT–117P specification requirements;

(2) identifies the retrofit capacity of tank car manufacturers and other entities in North America that can retrofit DOT–111 tank cars to meet DOT–117R specification requirements;

(3) estimates the schedule of replacing tank cars currently in service that are reaching the end of their life cycle;

(4) identifies the number of tank cars that need to be phased out or retrofitted under subsection (a) and the number that could be retrofitted; and

(5) estimates the demand for new tank cars.