NACTO Board President Michael Carroll championed the critical need for cities to have access to direct federal funding during a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) hearing last week. Carroll, the City of Philadelphia’s Deputy Managing Director for Transportation and Infrastructure, stressed how programs such as Safe Streets and Roads for All empower cities to respond to the needs of their residents.
The February 26 hearing, focused on Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Implementation and Case Studies, also featured Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurray (representing AASHTO), and Granite Construction Vice President Gary Johnson (representing the private construction industry).
The Senate EPW Committee, chaired by Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) and ranking member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D- RI), led a discussion about the successes of the IIJA and what tweaks might be needed in future infrastructure bills to accelerate projects and make funding more effective.
Carroll emphasized the importance of state-city partnerships, noting the City of Philadelphia’s collaborative relationship with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. “We are open to each other’s priorities and ideas, and we share the commitment to solving infrastructure challenges,” he said during his testimony. “This is a good model for the rest of the country. [The Commonwealth] acknowledges that we as the City are closer to the people we both serve, which speaks to the professionalism of the public servants who work for PennDOT.”
Direct funding to local governments “works best where it can be recognized that local government partners add capacity to that of State DOTs and that the state and local partnerships can take different shapes in different contexts,” said Carroll. “A future transportation bill should consider even more paths for direct funding to keep decision-making as close to the people as possible.”
In his comments and answers to the Committee’s questions, Carroll also:
- Supported predictable funding and predictable program guidance, emphasizing that changes to federal programs and requirements delay projects and take up valuable staff time.
- Noted the need for streamlined NEPA review, as well as categorical exclusions for pedestrian, bike, and safety projects within the existing right-of-way.
- Raised concerns about the current administration’s focus on buzzwords in delaying already-approved funding. “To be clear, ‘safety’ is not a buzzword, neither is ‘repair,’ nor is ‘access to jobs and opportunity,’” Carroll said.
- Emphasized the consequences of delays to federal funding programs, warning that any delays will drive up costs and erode public trust. “Like all Americans, Philadelphians want effective government that produces results,” Carroll said. “Each federal award that was announced in our region was received positively because residents recognized this as tangible action on decades-old needs. Americans expect all of you to keep your word and deliver on the expected results in safety, good repair, and access to opportunity that are the core of every project and not to breach that trust over semantics.”
As Congress prepares for the expiration of the IIJA in FY2026, Carroll’s testimony marked one of the first of many discussions about the next transportation bill. Carroll made it clear that cities must receive direct federal funding to efficiently deliver projects that meet local needs and that clear, predictable funding will make the most of federal dollars.
Read Mike Carroll’s full remarks here.
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