Infrastructure Bill Could Help Keep Foodservice Equipment Moving

The BUILD America 250 Act would invest in highways, bridges, rail, transit, and freight while creating new fees for electric vehicles and addressing transportation bottlenecks.

By Bridget McCrea
Contributing Writer

Sitting in highway traffic is aggravating for anyone, but for U.S. manufacturers, that aggravation comes with an annual price tag of about $25 billion. Highway congestion adds roughly 65 million hours to the time it takes to move finished goods and supplies across the supply chain, according to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Foodservice equipment distributors absorb those delays through longer transit times, stalled deliveries, and higher freight costs as orders travel from their point of origin to the customer’s facility.

Relief may be on the near horizon. Congress is considering the Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act, the BUILD America 250 Act for short. The bill would fund highways, bridges, transit, rail, and freight programs after the current funding authorization expires on Sept. 30, giving Congress a firm deadline for passing a new bill or extending the existing law. The bipartisan proposal would direct money through the Highway Trust Fund and add a new federal fee on electric vehicles, which currently don’t contribute through gasoline or diesel taxes. A closely watched issue for FEDA and its members, the act gives lawmakers a chance to address a funding system that has relied on the same federal fuel-tax rates since 1993.

A New Approach to Funding Transportation
For the last 33 years, the federal gasoline and diesel tax rates have remained unchanged. Drivers pay those taxes when they buy fuel, and the money goes into the Highway Trust Fund to help finance federal highway, bridge, and transit programs. Gas-powered vehicles contribute 18.4 cents per gallon, while diesel-powered vehicles contribute 24.4 cents. Electric vehicles (EVs) use the same roads but don’t buy either fuel, so their owners haven’t contributed to the fund through a federal fuel tax.

The five-year transportation funding bill includes $376 billion for Federal Highway Administration programs, $87.6 billion for transit, $5.7 billion for highway safety, and $5 billion for motor carrier safety. It also authorizes additional funding for rail programs, bridge projects, and major freight and multimodal projects, although that money would depend on future congressional appropriations.

Beyond those core investments, the bill also:

• Establishes a Surface Transportation Accelerator Grant program for projects in rural, urban, local, and regional communities.
• Outlines the first federal rules for autonomous commercial motor vehicles.
• Exempts automated driving technology and equipment from certain vehicle-width limits.
• Creates a consolidated state block grant program for public transportation services in rural and urban areas.
• Allows state rail safety inspectors to inspect railroad bridges.
• Introduces a reporting system for state, local, and tribal governments to flag railroad bridge safety concerns.
• Extends funding for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program.
• Authorizes additional investments in Amtrak and other passenger rail programs.

Supporters see that investment as essential to the nation’s growing economy. “You can’t have a big-league economy with little-league infrastructure,” said Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “The BUILD America 250 Act makes key investments in the nation’s transportation, from restoring aging bridges and repairing crumbling roads to building out safe, accessible transit and bike infrastructure.”

Bringing EVs into the Highway Trust Fund
One of the bill’s biggest changes would be a new annual federal registration fee of $130 for electric vehicles and $35 for plug-in hybrids. This fee would plug a gap in transportation funding that has widened as EVs have become a bigger part of the car market. Battery-powered vehicles represented 7.4% of all new car sales in 2025, according to data from Edmunds. That number is likely to grow in the coming years, as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory predicts there could be 30 million to 42 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030.

Creating a new fee for EVs would give the Highway Trust Fund its first new source of revenue in more than three decades. This new fee would spread more of the cost of maintaining the nation’s highways across all the vehicles using them instead of continuing to rely so heavily on gasoline and diesel purchases.

“The BUILD America 250 Act ensures that electric vehicle owners begin paying their fair share for the use of our roads,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) said. “The bill also makes smart and targeted reforms to our surface transportation programs, focuses on strengthening our core infrastructure system, drives innovation, bolsters safety, ensures states have the flexibility they need, and cuts red tape to get projects built faster.”

Keeping the Goods Moving
For FEDA members, the transportation debate directly affects freight costs, delivery windows, and project schedules. Equipment and supplies may travel from a manufacturer to a distributor’s warehouse, move between distribution centers, and continue to a restaurant, school, hospital, or other customer site.

A delay at any point in that supply chain can extend delivery times, increase carrying costs, and complicate installation schedules. That’s why FEDA supports the transportation priorities outlined by NAM in its Building to Win campaign. The campaign calls on Congress to maintain federal infrastructure investment, strengthen transportation networks across multiple modes, address the Highway Trust Fund’s long-term finances, and reform the permitting process for major projects.

“Manufacturers asked Congress to begin the work toward developing long-term solutions for Highway Trust Fund solvency: Invest in our mass transit, rail, aviation, maritime, and water infrastructure and pass comprehensive permitting reform,” NAM Executive Vice President Erin Streeter said in a statement. “We commend the members of the committee for their work on this bill and urge Speaker [Mike] Johnson (R-LA) to bring it to the floor so manufacturers can realize the benefits of this legislation through growth and innovation that will support our nation’s broader economic prosperity.”

The BUILD America 250 Act could help address those needs as manufacturers and distributors deal with persistent slowdowns at major logistics hubs. NAM’s analysis found that the nation’s 25 worst freight bottlenecks intersect with key logistics nodes and account for more than 2 million hours of annual delays. It also estimates that congestion at container and bulk ports costs manufacturers more than $13 billion each year in carrying costs and demurrage charges — charges that trickle through the entire supply chain.

Support Across the Transportation Sector
Support for the BUILD America 250 Act extends well beyond manufacturers and into the broader business world. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, state and local chambers, and the American Trucking Associations (ATA) all see the bill as an important step toward keeping transportation projects funded and addressing some of the problems that slow freight movement.

The U.S. Chamber and its coalition support the bill in part because it would give states, transit agencies, local governments, and private companies more certainty when planning and financing major transportation projects. For distributors, that longer planning window can affect when road, bridge, and port projects begin, how quickly they’re completed, and how reliably freight can travel through the affected areas.

Some of that increased certainty will come from the bill’s changes to the transportation project review and permitting process. Lengthy reviews can delay construction and increase project costs, leaving aging infrastructure in place longer while businesses continue dealing with bottlenecks, detours, and capacity limits. The BUILD America 250 Act aims to ease that process by codifying the Department of Transportation’s ability to grant pre-award authority across rail programs. It also allows reimbursement for property acquisition for rail projects before the completion of a National Environmental Policy Act review, which assesses the potential environmental impacts of a project.

While the U.S. Chamber is focused on construction bottlenecks, the trucking industry is championing changes that would improve conditions for drivers and carriers. ATA has signaled support for several provisions that would improve bathroom access for drivers, implement stronger fraud detection tools, create freight broker registration requirements, and combat cargo theft. The bill would also extend a federal apprenticeship program for drivers ages 18 to 20 and direct federal agencies to address barriers that prevent separating and retiring military members from entering transportation and supply chain jobs.

Among the most needed provisions is the bill’s $750 million commitment to truck parking, which ATA called a major gain for the industry. “Drivers work to comply with federal regulations like hours-of-service requirements but are often forced to park in illegal and unsafe locations due to a lack of dedicated truck parking,” ATA said in a news release. “This funding will help keep drivers and the motoring public more safe.”

What Are the Next Steps?
As of mid-August, the BUILD America 250 Act had cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee but still needed to pass the full House and advance through the Senate. Lawmakers must act by Sept. 30, when the current surface transportation authorization expires. Business advocacy groups have pushed for a long-term funding bill; however, a short-term extension may also be possible while Congress continues to negotiate the BUILD America 250 Act.

Getting a five-year bill enacted may require some compromise between the House and Senate. The bill’s strong bipartisan committee vote is a solid start, but lawmakers still have some ground to cover before the deadline.