Rail and ports are key to exports; exports are key to the economy (Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray)

The economy in our home state of Washington relies heavily on exports. Success of this vital economic driver depends on products moving efficiently from farms and factories in Midwestern, Mountain and Western states over various transportation modes to our ports and to markets abroad. One job in three in Washington depends on trade. And in 2009, we exported over $51 billion worth of goods — making us fourth in the nation for exports and first in the nation for exports per capita.

Nationwide, according to a recent report by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the nation’s trucking industry will move 3 billion more tons of freight in 2020 than it moves today, requiring an additional 1.8 million trucks; and by 2050, the total national freight demand will double from today’s level, with truck freight increasing by 41 percent and rail freight increasing by 38 percent. In addition, the president’s National Export Initiative aims to double U.S. exports over the next five years.

However, despite these strong growth projections and the importance of freight movement to our nation’s economy, there is no national policy or coordinated strategy that incorporates our priorities for mobility, safety, and environmental protection. There is no national policy to help direct strategic investments into our transportation infrastructure to ensure the capacity exists to support strong economic growth, including in exports.

For these reasons, we joined with Sen. Frank Lautenberg to introduce the FREIGHT — Focusing Resources, Economic Investment, and Guidance to Help Transportation — Act of 2010 (S. 3629). The FREIGHT Act establishes a national transportation policy to ensure that our transportation system can enhance our nation’s competitiveness in the global economy. The act establishes a new Office of Freight Planning and Development within the Department of Transportation that will coordinate efforts to improve efficiency of all the component parts that make up our national freight infrastructure. Goals include ensuring the timely delivery of goods and services, reducing congestion and delays, making freight transportation more efficient, reducing its impact on the environment, and reducing freight-related transportation fatalities.

The Office of Freight Planning and Development will also devise a national transportation policy that includes all modes of transportation. In this way, the FREIGHT Act will bring about desperately needed improvements in the coordination of policy development across all modes — coordination that is critical to ensure effective policies and smart investments.

To support investment, the FREIGHT Act authorizes a new competitive grant program for freight-specific infrastructure improvements modeled largely on the TIGER grant program. These grants will strengthen the federal role in supporting investment within the gates of our ports, multimodal terminal facilities and land ports of entry. The grants will also help build and improve mobility along our freight corridors by expanding rail capacity and implementing intelligent transportation systems to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety. Additionally, the FREIGHT Act provides states with additional flexibility in where they can direct federal transportation formula dollars by allowing targeted investments in ports or intermodal facility improvement projects, which current law prohibits.

In the long run, the FREIGHT Act will help strengthen our export economy by allowing us to create a more seamless policy and transportation network to move freight more efficiently by road, rail, sea and air. This bill helps put us on that road.