The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides our nation with the certainty and funding to improve the outdated infrastructure in every community. NSSGA calls on Congress and the Biden Administration to ensure effective implementation of the law, as written by Congress, to get projects moving that will reduce congestion; improve the flow of goods; facilitate commerce; and deliver energy and clean water that improves the lives of every American. We urge Congress and the Biden Administration to:

Provide maximum flexibility to state and local partners deploying infrastructure. Partisan mandates attached to federal infrastructure opportunities that discourage investment in new capacity projects, create more bureaucratic delays or provide new workforce hurdles should be rejected.

The aggregates industry needs regulatory certainty to effectively plan and deliver the billions of tons of material needed to build and sustain our modern American way of life. We call on Congress and the Biden Administration to:

Reject the new Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rulemaking until the Supreme Court rules in the Sackett vs. EPA case. It is highly anticipated the Supreme Court will change how the EPA and Army Corp define a “WOTUS." If the agencies proceed with their flawed rulemaking prior to the expected decision (October 3rd hearing), material producers will be forced to comply with multiple complex changes to WOTUS in a span of months.

Enact bipartisan permitting reforms included in the IIJA. Instead of proceeding with new rulemakings that complicate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedure, we urge rapid enactment of policies included in IIJA like “one federal decision” that will streamline bureaucratic review and reduce infrastructure permitting timelines from seven years to two.

Taxpayers and local communities are best served when Congress allows engineers to drive material use decisions in building projects. We call on Congress to reject attempts to promote specific building materials like mass timber.

Oppose Material preference language that was included in the House National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Scott/Golden amendment, adopted during the FY 2023 NDAA markup, creates a sweetheart mass timber only demonstration program that is duplicative of the sustainable building materials program established in the FY 2022 NDAA – which statutorily includes the use of mass timber. The Department of Defense has already stated they are an early adopter of mass timber and utilize the material across multiple building projects.

Oppose Mass Timber Directive in Appropriations. The FY 2023 House and Senate appropriations measures contain dozens of directives for federal agencies to use mass timber, including establishing a $10 million program in the Senate THUD bill for mass timber only projects at FHWA. These directives take material decisions out of the hands of engineers and project managers and discourage the use of other more sustainable building materials.

NSSGA calls on Congress to pass the Mining Schools Act (S. 3915 and H.R. 8187). This bipartisan legislation will provide critical support to mining schools and engineering programs across the country to drive innovative research and help grow the next generation of mining professionals. The aggregates industry employs over half of the engineers and professionals graduating from these programs each year.