National Bridge Funding Reform Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill strikes current title 23 sections 175 and 176 and substitutes a new section 175 national bridge program. The new program supports replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, protection, and construction of bridges on Federal-aid highways, with state discretion to use funds for bridges not on Federal-aid highways. Section 104(b)(7) is revised so the national bridge program receives 5.47660865256628 percent of the amount remaining after specified highway formula distributions. The Secretary distributes program funds 75 percent by each state's share of total Federal-aid highway bridge deck area and 25 percent by each state's share of Federal-aid highway bridge deck area classified as poor condition, using the National Bridge Inventory as of December 31, 2024. The bill also removes references to the carbon reduction program and PROTECT program in related title 23 provisions.
Who Benefits and How
States with large Federal-aid bridge deck areas and states with poor-condition bridges benefit from a bridge-specific formula. State DOTs and bridge owners gain flexible eligibility for replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, protection, and construction, including state-discretionary use for non-Federal-aid highway bridges.
Who Bears the Burden and How
States that benefited from carbon reduction or PROTECT formula funding lose those program streams. FHWA and the Secretary of Transportation must administer the new formula, calculate deck-area and poor-condition shares from the National Bridge Inventory, and update title 23 program references.
Key Provisions
- Repeals the current title 23 carbon reduction and PROTECT program sections and related formula references.
- Creates a national bridge program receiving 5.47660865256628 percent of remaining title 23 apportionments.
- Authorizes bridge replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, protection, and construction on Federal-aid highways, with state discretion for non-Federal-aid bridges.
- Distributes 75 percent by total Federal-aid bridge deck area and 25 percent by poor-condition Federal-aid bridge deck area using the National Bridge Inventory as of December 31, 2024.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Eliminates the carbon reduction and PROTECT formula programs from title 23 and replaces them with a national bridge program funded by 5.47660865256628 percent of remaining highway apportionments, distributed mostly by bridge deck area and poor-condition deck area.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Infrastructure, Federal Grants
Primary Purpose
Eliminates the carbon reduction and PROTECT formula programs from title 23 and replaces them with a national bridge program funded by 5.47660865256628 percent of remaining highway apportionments, distributed mostly by bridge deck area and poor-condition deck area.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- State DOTs
- Bridge owners
- States with poor bridges
- Federal Highway Administration
Identified Costs
- Carbon reduction program recipients
- PROTECT program recipients
- Federal Highway Administration
- Secretary of Transportation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Mr. Nehls (for himself, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Williams …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bridge owners, PROTECT program recipients, State DOTs
Positive-direction: Bridge owners, State DOTs
Negative-direction: PROTECT program recipients
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "fhwa"
- → Federal Highway Administration
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Transportation
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The bridge database used to calculate deck-area and poor-condition bridge shares as of December 31, 2024.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology