Values

• Congress must provide the long-term predictability that states need to undertake major construction projects. The short-term extensions to the highway transportation law have been necessary to keep current projects running.  However, comprehensive transportation legislation is needed.

• I believe states need to be provided more flexibility and regulatory certainty to determine their own unique infrastructure priorities, including highways, bridges, tunnels, economic development sites, recreational trials, and walking and bicycling paths.

• The safety of our nation’s highways and bridges must be improved. Among other things, a finalized transportation plan must encourage private investment through public-private partnerships so that we can use the least amount of taxpayer dollars and accelerate the construction of priority projects.

Actions

• Voted in favor of the FAST Act (H.R. 22), a 5 year highway bill reauthorization that replaces temporary patches with a long-term, sustainable solution to funding our critical highway construction projects. This legislation also provides states and localities more flexibility in determining how funds are spent as they undertake major construction and renovation projects for our aging infrastructure. H.R. 22 was signed into law on December 4, 2015.

• Original co-sponsor of H. Res. 585, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that two or more states entering into an agreement or compact for cooperative effort and mutual assistance would be beneficial to the development of an Interstate 73 corridor. The I-73 project would allow for our area to improve our transportation hub, which would not only help us get goods into the southeast by improving the 220 corridor but would also take our natural distribution advantages and add the capacity to transport goods by road to the heart of the Great Lakes. In short, it would increase our significant position in the eastern United States for the distribution of goods.

• Co-sponsored the Black Box Privacy Protection Act (H.R. 2526), which would clarify that a vehicle’s owner also owns the event data recorder’s (EDR) data and that the information may not be accessed without the owner’s permission or without having obtained a valid, properly-issued search warrant. It also would require manufacturers to provide consumers with the capabilities to control the EDR’s recording function, in other words, you could turn it off. I want to ensure that the American people have more control over their own information – be it phone records or the information collected by a vehicle’s EDR.

• Co-sponsored the Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports (RPM) Act of 2016 (H.R. 4715), which would block the EPA’s attempts to regulate modified motor vehicles used for racing and outlaw the modification of street vehicles into race-only vehicles. On April 15, 2016, after pressure from myself, others on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and racing fans across the country, the EPA announced it is abandoning this proposed regulation.

• Co-sponsored H.Con.Res. 33, which expresses the sense of Congress that the Federal excise tax on heavy-duty trucks should not be increased and that Congress should review the detrimental impacts of such a tax in considering future transportation policy.

• Opposes certain NAFTA long-haul trucking provisions. For instance, foreign truck drivers have less incentive to pay traffic fines they receive on U.S. highways. A comprehensive record of a foreign truck driver’s safety violations can be difficult to obtain. Finally, unfamiliarity with local terrain (like our hills and mountains) can lead to more accidents and increased frustration.