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United States Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) introduced an amended<br />
bill to the House earlier this year that would have addressed<br />
truck parking, but it failed.<br />
Bost blamed Democrats.<br />
“Growing up in a family trucking business, I am all too familiar<br />
with the shortage of safe truck parking options along our<br />
nation’s highways,” Bost wrote in an e-mailed statement.<br />
“This is not only a safety concern for truckers, but also for<br />
the commuters who share the road with them,” he continued.<br />
“I have offered commonsense amendments three times in the<br />
House to provide funding to address this problem, and the<br />
Democrat majority has blocked them each time.”<br />
Bost added: “They have paid lip service to America’s trucking<br />
community and claimed to understand their concerns; yet this<br />
$3.5 trillion bill includes zero funding for truck parking. Not<br />
a penny. It just goes to show that they don’t care about this<br />
problem at all.”<br />
Biden, who has on many whistle-stop tours touted the infrastructure<br />
bill, hasn’t mentioned anything about the truck parking<br />
issue. His main talking points are that the infrastructure bill<br />
includes projects to help reduce greenhouse gasses and make<br />
America’s infrastructure stronger so that it can hold up to everworsening<br />
weather.<br />
More specifically, the bill includes:<br />
• $10 billion to support access to affordable housing and<br />
enhance mobility for low-income individuals and residents of<br />
disadvantaged or persistent poverty communities.<br />
• $4 billion for reduction of carbon pollution in the surface<br />
transportation sector — addressing the largest source of transportation<br />
greenhouse gas emissions.<br />
• $4 billion to support neighborhood equity, safety, and<br />
affordable transportation access, including reconnecting<br />
communities divided by existing infrastructure barriers.<br />
• $6 billion to advance local surface transportation projects.<br />
• $1 billion to the Department of Transportation to support<br />
projects that develop, demonstrate, or apply low-emission<br />
technologies or produce, transport, blend, or store sustainable<br />
aviation fuels.<br />
• $500 million to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s<br />
(FEMA) hazard mitigation revolving loan fund program;<br />
$425 million for grants for the construction, retrofit, technological<br />
enhancement, and updated planning requirements of<br />
state, local, Tribal, and territorial emergency operation centers.<br />
• $9.5 billion to the Economic Development Administration<br />
to provide investments in persistently distressed communities,<br />
provide assistance to energy and industrial transition communities,<br />
invest in public works projects, and create regional<br />
hubs.•<br />
• $1 billion for climate-resilient Coast Guard infrastructure.<br />
• $2.5 billion to the Maritime Administration to support more<br />
sustainable port infrastructure and supply chain resilience.<br />
For now, the bill remains in limbo, and truck parking is stalled<br />
as a back-burner issue in Washington. As of this writing, no<br />
one is sure when — or if — a vote will take place.<br />
“Addressing the parking shortage would also have supported<br />
efforts to reduce carbon emission from the transportation sector,”<br />
added OOIDA’s Spencer.<br />
“Truck drivers waste approximately 56 minutes per day looking<br />
for parking, all the while needlessly burning fuel, emitting<br />
carbon and contributing to congestion,” he stated. “It’s tough<br />
to swallow the fact that in a year when Congress is authorizing<br />
hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects and<br />
highway safety programs, not a single penny was set aside for<br />
truck parking.”<br />
TCA NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 WWW.TRUCKLOAD.ORG | TRUCKLOAD AUTHORITY 7