Last week Senators Lautenberg (D-NJ), Murray (D-WA) and Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the country’s first comprehensive freight bill that would fill the current policy vacuum surrounding federal investment in freight and port transportation projects.

The “Focusing Resources, Economic Investment, and Guidance to Help Transportation (FREIGHT) Act of 2010” would do the following:

• direct the federal government to create and implement a national freight plan;
• establish benchmarks and performance measures for  greenhouse gas reductions and air, water and noise pollution impacts on surrounding communities;
• create a new Office of Freight Planning and Development within the Department of Transportation (DOT) that would coordinate efforts to improve the efficiency and operation of all modes of the national freight transportation system.

Currently there is no freight policy, program or dedicated transportation money at the federal level that can help states, regions or ports  improve operations at ports, intermodal facilities and freight corridors.  Existing funding formulas leave very little money for rail or other non-highway solutions to alleviate freight congestion, so when a state or port wants to improve efficiency and reduce delays, they’re often left with highway building as the only option.  There is also no accountability to make sure port spending actually results in decreased congestion, increased efficiency of freight movement, or reductions in air, water and noise pollution in surrounding communities.

The new bill lays out specific goals for federal freight spending and creates a new competitive grant program that would reward freight specific infrastructure projects that achieve the following: