HR9036-119

What This Bill Does

The American High-Speed Rail Act would substantially expand federal assistance for high-speed passenger rail. It would let the Department of Transportation cover up to 100 percent of eligible corridor-planning and corridor-development costs, broaden eligibility to certain public-private consortia, and allow the Secretary to designate additional high-speed rail corridors. It would prioritize projects with at least 20 percent of costs from specified federal credit programs, foreign-border-government, state, local, or private sources; federal credit-program amounts used for that share would have to be repaid from state, local, or private sources.

The bill would redefine high-speed rail as service expected to sustain at least 186 miles per hour and create a separate higher-speed category for service above 110 but below 186 miles per hour. No more than 20 percent of specified planning and development grants could support that lower-speed category. Grant reviews would add equity, climate, resilience, economic-development, regional-connectivity, electrification, and underserved-place considerations. The Secretary could not impose mandatory project spending timelines, and the State Department generally would have to issue required permits for international-border projects unless it found a national-security concern.

The measure would authorize, but not itself appropriate, $3 billion per year for corridor planning, $3 billion per year for technology improvements, and $35 billion per year for corridor development for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. It would separately authorize $20 million per year over the same period for transit-oriented-development planning and give greater consideration to communities where high-speed rail projects are proposed. Together, those authorizations total $205.1 billion over five years.

Passenger rail grant recipients could acquire right-of-way or adjacent property before or during full project environmental review, but only after federal verification of authority, transportation purpose, neutral alternatives analysis, environmental safeguards, civil-rights and relocation protections, and other applicable law. Federal funding for the acquisition would still require completion of the acquisition-specific environmental reviews, and the property could not be developed until all project reviews were complete.

The bill would also make past and future National Infrastructure Investments amounts available for railroad credit-risk premiums. Freight rail carriers could sell, lease, or grant easements over property to eligible rail-assistance recipients. A carrier acquiring replacement adjacent property would receive grants up to the proceeds from that transfer. Transfer gains, lease payments, replacement-property grants, and qualifying improvements would be excluded from the carrier's federal gross income, and existing section 28103 would apply to the transferred property.

Finally, operators and providers performing railroad-craft work on grant-funded rail infrastructure would be treated as rail carriers and employers for the Railroad Retirement Act, Railway Labor Act, and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Building contractors would generally be exempt for construction work, but not for historically railroad-craft maintenance and repair. Other contractors could use non-covered employees when their work is consistent with the applicable railroad or operator collective-bargaining agreement.

Who Benefits and How

State and local rail agencies, Amtrak, eligible private-public consortia, and passenger rail project sponsors could seek larger federal shares and a much larger pool of authorized funding. Freight rail carriers could receive replacement-property grants, tax exclusions, lease or sale proceeds, and application of existing passenger-rail liability rules. Communities proposed for high-speed rail could receive preference for transit-oriented development planning. Covered railroad-craft workers and their unions would gain the labor, retirement, and unemployment-law framework that applies to rail employment.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal taxpayers would finance any amounts later appropriated under the $205.1 billion authorization and would absorb the cost or risk of grants, premium payments, and tax exclusions. Covered rail operators and service providers would take on railroad labor-law, payroll, bargaining, and benefit-administration duties. State, local, or private sources would have to repay specified federal credit-program amounts used toward favored project shares. Higher-speed projects would face a 20-percent cap, and applicants for other uses of National Infrastructure Investments could face competition when those amounts pay rail credit-risk premiums. Federal transportation and diplomatic agencies would administer the expanded grants, reviews, standards, and permit duties.

Key Provisions

• Expands eligible high-speed-rail applicants and permits federal shares up to 100 percent.
• Authorizes $205.1 billion for rail and transit-oriented-development programs through FY2031.
• Defines high-speed and higher-speed rail and caps the latter at 20 percent of specified funds.
• Allows conditional advance right-of-way acquisition while preserving environmental safeguards.
• Provides grants and federal tax exclusions for freight-rail right-of-way transactions.
• Makes infrastructure grant amounts available for railroad credit-risk premiums.
• Applies specified railroad labor laws to covered operators and railroad-craft service providers.
• Preserves targeted contractor exceptions tied to construction work and labor agreements.