Chamber, WCIT lead call for a national freight transportation policy

In a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 24 ports, economic organizations and businesses from around the country urged the inclusion of a national freight transportation policy in the next long-term reauthorization of federal surface transportation legislation.

The letter, organized by the Seattle Metro Chamber and the Washington Council on International Trade, highlights the importance of a national freight investment policy to our economy, and suggests the three key elements:

• Establishing a national freight strategic performance plan to assess the performance of our surface transportation system, identify a list of priority freight corridors and gateways, analyze long-term freight and transportation trends, and further the goals of the National Export Initiative;
• Generating new tools and data to evaluate freight-related projects to determine cost-benefit and other attributes to ensure wise investment of taxpayer dollars; and
• Creating a national competitive freight infrastructure investment grant program to prioritize cost-beneficial freight projects and invest in our nationwide freight network, including highways, railroads, ports, and intermodal facilities.

The inclusion of a national freight policy in surface transportation legislation is particularly essential to Washington state’s international competitiveness. At least 70 percent of the freight coming in through the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma is bound for destinations in the rest of the United States, meaning that shippers only choose our ports if they believe that they can easily, reliably and quickly get their goods from here to places like Chicago. Yet, with choke points in states in between here and Illinois, Washington state has no ability to ensure adequate capacity, reduced congestion and increased throughput without a national freight investment program.

The reauthorization of the long-term federal surface transportation funding bill is one of the Chamber’s top federal transportation priorities, and has a major impact on many of the transportation programs and projects that we support at the state and local levels.

This letter is another example of the federal policy leadership that the Seattle Metro Chamber has added as one of its newest member services. For more information, contact Eric Schinfeld, our federal policy director,
at (206) 389-7273.