II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2380 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the national freight 

policy of the United States, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 21, 2014 

Mr. BOOKER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the 

national freight policy of the United States, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freight Priorities 

5 Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL FREIGHT POLICY. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle III of title 49, United 

8 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol9 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘CHAPTER 64—NATIONAL FREIGHT 

2 POLICY 

3 ‘‘SEC. 6401. NATIONAL FREIGHT POLICY; MEASURING THE 

4 PERFORMANCE OF MULTIMODAL FREIGHT 

5 INFRASTRUCTURE. 

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—It is the policy of the United 

7 States to improve the efficiency, operation, and security 

8 of the national freight network by leveraging investments 

9 and promoting partnerships that— 

10 ‘‘(1) advance interstate and foreign commerce; 

11 ‘‘(2) promote economic competitiveness and job 

12 creation; 

13 ‘‘(3) improve the safe and efficient mobility of 

14 goods; and 

15 ‘‘(4) protect the public health and the environ16 ment. 

17 ‘‘(b) OBJECTIVES; GOALS.— 

18 ‘‘(1) OBJECTIVES.—The objectives of the na19 tional freight policy are— 

20 ‘‘(A) to target investment in freight trans21 portation projects that strengthen the economic 

22 competitiveness of the United States with a 

23 focus on domestic industries and businesses and 

24 the creation of high-value jobs; 


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1 ‘‘(B) to promote and advance energy con2 servation and the environmental sustainability 

3 of freight movements; 

4 ‘‘(C) to facilitate and advance the safety 

5 and health of the public, including communities 

6 adjacent to freight movements; 

7 ‘‘(D) to provide for systematic and bal8 anced investment to improve the overall per9 formance and reliability of the national freight 

10 network system to move freight, including en11 suring trade facilitation and transportation sys12 tem improvements are mutually supportive; 

13 ‘‘(E) to promote partnerships between 

14 Federal, State, and local governments, the pri15 vate sector, and other transportation stake16 holders to leverage investments in freight trans17 portation projects; and 

18 ‘‘(F) to encourage adoption of operational 

19 policies, such as intelligent transportation sys20 tems, to improve the efficiency of freight-related 

21 transportation movements and infrastructure. 

22 ‘‘(2) GOALS.—The goals of the national freight 

23 policy are— 

24 ‘‘(A) to reduce transportation infrastruc25 ture-related delays of goods and commodities 


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1 entering into and out of international points of 

2 entry on an annual basis; 

3 ‘‘(B) to increase travel time reliability on 

4 major freight corridors that connect major pop5 ulation centers to freight generators and inter6 national gateways on an annual basis; 

7 ‘‘(C) to reduce by 10 percent the number 

8 of freight transportation-related fatalities by 

9 2018; 

10 ‘‘(D) to reduce national freight transpor11 tation-related carbon dioxide levels by 40 per12 cent by 2030; 

13 ‘‘(E) to reduce freight transportation-re14 lated air, water, and noise pollution and im15 pacts on ecosystems and communities on an an16 nual basis; and 

17 ‘‘(F) to promote the inclusion of ports in 

18 freight network planning and project selec19 tion.’’. 

20 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 

21 subtitle III of title 49, United States Code, is amended 

22 by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘CHAPTER 64—NATIONAL FREIGHT POLICY

‘‘Sec. 

‘‘6401. National freight policy; measuring the performance of multimodal freight 

infrastructure.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. PARTICIPATION OF PUBLIC PORT AUTHORITIES. 

2 (a) POLICIES AND PURPOSES.—Section 5301(b) of 

3 title 49, United States Code, is amended— 

4 (1) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 

5 inserting a semicolon; 

6 (2) in paragraph (8), by striking the period at 

7 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

8 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

9 ‘‘(9) ensure that public port authorities are in10 cluded in metropolitan freight transportation plan11 ning.’’. 

12 (b) METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING.— 

13 Section 5303(i)(6)(A) of title 49, United States Code, is 

14 amended by inserting ‘‘public ports,’’ before ‘‘freight ship15 pers,’’. 

16 (c) NONMETROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLAN17 NING.—Section 5304(g)(3) of title 49, United States 

18 Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘public ports,’’ before 

19 ‘‘freight shippers,’’. 

20 SEC. 4. MULTIMODAL FREIGHT NETWORK. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle III of title 49, United 

22 States Code (as amended by section 2), is amended by 

23 adding at the following: 


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1 ‘‘CHAPTER 65—MULTIMODAL FREIGHT 

2 NETWORK 

3 ‘‘§ 6501. Definitions 

4 ‘‘In this chapter: 

5 ‘‘(1) METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZA6 TION.—The term ‘metropolitan planning organiza7 tion’ has the meaning given the term in section 

8 134(b) of title 23. 

9 ‘‘(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

10 the Secretary of Transportation. 

11 ‘‘(3) SELECTED ENTITY.—The term ‘selected 

12 entity’ means an entity selected to participate in the 

13 multimodal freight performance pilot program estab14 lished under section 6502(b). 

15 ‘‘(4) URBANIZED AREA.—The term ‘urbanized 

16 area’ has the meaning given the term in section 

17 134(b) of title 23. 

18 ‘‘§ 6502. Multimodal freight network 

19 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEAS20 URES.—The Secretary may, in accordance with the na21 tional freight strategic plan developed under section 167(f) 

22 of title 23, establish measures to assess the performance 

23 of a multimodal freight network. 

24 ‘‘(b) MULTIMODAL FREIGHT PERFORMANCE PILOT

25 PROGRAM.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es2 tablish a pilot program under which not more than 

3 5 urbanized areas shall develop and deploy 1 or 

4 more pilot measures and targets to improve 

5 multimodal freight movement in densely populated 

6 and congested urban areas. 

7 ‘‘(2) LOCATIONS.—The Secretary shall select 

8 not more than 5 locations, each of which represents 

9 an urbanized area of more than 1,000,000 individ10 uals for the pilot program. 

11 ‘‘(3) SELECTION.—The Secretary shall select 

12 entities or a combination of entities to carry out this 

13 subsection, which may include— 

14 ‘‘(A) metropolitan planning organizations; 

15 ‘‘(B) State departments of transportation; 

16 ‘‘(C) multistate planning commissions; 

17 ‘‘(D) freight advisory committees; and 

18 ‘‘(E) other appropriate entities. 

19 ‘‘(4) ENTITY DESIGNATIONS.—Of the selected 

20 entities, the Secretary shall designate— 

21 ‘‘(A) an entity that has previous successful 

22 use of freight performance measures and per23 formance-based planning efforts as a mentor 

24 grantee; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) an entity that has limited or no suc2 cessful previous experience in freight perform3 ance measures and performance-based planning 

4 efforts as a novice grantee. 

5 ‘‘(5) PILOT PROGRAM ACTIVITIES.— 

6 ‘‘(A) MULTIMODAL FREIGHT INFRASTRUC7 TURE PERFORMANCE BASELINE.—Not later 

8 than 180 days after the date on which the Sec9 retary selects a pilot program location, the ap10 plicable selected entity shall develop a baseline 

11 of freight transportation assets within the ur12 banized area that describes— 

13 ‘‘(i) the condition of key highway, rail, 

14 seaport, airport, barge, and intermodal fa15 cilities that handle freight; 

16 ‘‘(ii) bottlenecks in the freight system 

17 that cause delays and unreliability in 

18 freight movements; 

19 ‘‘(iii) the speed, reliability, and costs 

20 of moving goods through the metropolitan 

21 area; 

22 ‘‘(iv) the degree to which transport of 

23 freight affects surrounding communities, 

24 including public health and air quality; and 


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1 ‘‘(v) the degree to which the inter2 modal freight network provides economic 

3 opportunities to local communities, includ4 ing jobs at ports and other intermodal 

5 freight facilities. 

6 ‘‘(B) PERFORMANCE INDICATORS.—The 

7 Secretary shall work with selected entities at 

8 pilot locations to implement 1 or more provi9 sional indicators to measure improvements 

10 against the freight infrastructure performance 

11 baseline developed under subparagraph (A). 

12 ‘‘(C) DATA COLLECTION AND REPORT13 ING.—The selected entities shall collect and re14 port baseline and annual performance data. 

15 ‘‘(D) KNOWLEDGE-SHARING.—A selected 

16 entity designated as a mentor grantee shall en17 gage in knowledge-sharing activities with novice 

18 grantees to the maximum extent practicable, 

19 which may include peer exchanges and technical 

20 assistance, as appropriate to the level of per21 formance measurement capacity. 

22 ‘‘(c) NATIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURE DEVELOP23 MENT ACTIVITIES.— 

24 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary— 


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1 ‘‘(A) shall evaluate the multimodal freight 

2 performance measures developed by selected en3 tities in pilot locations; and 

4 ‘‘(B) in accordance with the national 

5 freight strategic plan developed under section 

6 167(f) of title 23, may establish performance 

7 measures to assess the efficiency of the 

8 multimodal freight network. 

9 ‘‘(2) MULTIMODAL FREIGHT MOVEMENT FINAL

10 REPORT.— 

11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—At the end of the pilot 

12 program under this section, the Secretary shall 

13 prepare (including seeking public comment on) 

14 a final report describing the results of the pilot 

15 program that includes— 

16 ‘‘(i) recommendations on— 

17 ‘‘(I) the establishment of 1 or 

18 more national multimodal freight in19 frastructure performance measures; 

20 and 

21 ‘‘(II) the integration of the meas22 ures into the Federal transportation 

23 performance management framework; 

24 ‘‘(ii) a description of actions taken 

25 under the pilot program to measure and 


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1 improve multimodal freight infrastructure 

2 performance; and 

3 ‘‘(iii) an assessment of— 

4 ‘‘(I) outcomes and impacts that 

5 may result from the pilot measures; 

6 ‘‘(II) estimated savings and new 

7 tax revenues to Federal, State and 

8 local governments from improved 

9 freight system performance. 

10 ‘‘(B) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary shall 

11 publish in the Federal Register the report re12 quired under subparagraph (A). 

13 ‘‘(3) PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND STAND14 ARDS.—Not later than 2 years after the date of the 

15 publication of the final report required under para16 graph (2), the Secretary (in consultation with State 

17 Departments of Transportation, metropolitan plan18 ning organizations, and other stakeholders) may pro19 mulgate a rule that establishes performance meas20 ures and standards for multimodal freight.’’. 

21 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

22 (1) The analysis for subtitle III of title 49, 

23 United States Code (as amended by section 2), is 

24 amended by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘CHAPTER 65—MULTIMODAL FREIGHT NETWORK


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‘‘6501. Definitions. 

‘‘6502. Multimodal freight network.’’. 

1 (2) Section 167 of title 23, United States Code, 

2 is repealed. 

3 (3) Section 505(a)(3) of title 23, United States 

4 Code, is amended by striking ‘‘149, and 167’’ and 

5 inserting ‘‘and 149, and section 6502 of title 49’’. 

6 SEC. 5. NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT TRANSPOR7 TATION RESEARCH PROGRAM. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 5 of title 23, United 

9 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘§ 519. National cooperative freight transportation 

12 research program 

13 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish 

14 and support a national cooperative freight transportation 

15 research program. 

16 ‘‘(b) AGREEMENT.—The Secretary shall offer to 

17 enter into an agreement with the Transportation Research 

18 Board of the National Research Council of the National 

19 Academies (referred to in this section as the ‘National 

20 Academies’) to support and carry out administrative and 

21 management activities relating to the governance of the 

22 national cooperative freight transportation research pro23 gram. 


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1 ‘‘(c) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The National Acad2 emies shall select an advisory committee consisting of a 

3 representative cross-section of freight stakeholders, includ4 ing representatives of— 

5 ‘‘(1) the Department of Transportation; 

6 ‘‘(2) other Federal agencies; 

7 ‘‘(3) State transportation departments; 

8 ‘‘(4) local governments; 

9 ‘‘(5) nonprofit entities; 

10 ‘‘(6) academic institutions; 

11 ‘‘(7) private sector carriers and shippers; 

12 ‘‘(8) port authorities; 

13 ‘‘(9) air quality organizations; and 

14 ‘‘(10) other interested parties. 

15 ‘‘(d) GOVERNANCE.— 

16 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The national cooperative 

17 freight transportation research program established 

18 under this section shall include the administrative 

19 and management elements described in this sub20 section. 

21 ‘‘(2) NATIONAL RESEARCH AGENDA.— 

22 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The advisory com23 mittee, in consultation with interested parties, 

24 shall recommend a national research agenda for 

25 the program. 


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1 ‘‘(B) COMPONENT.—The agenda shall— 

2 ‘‘(i) emphasize multimodal goods 

3 movement; 

4 ‘‘(ii) address major freight challenges 

5 in urban and rural areas; and 

6 ‘‘(iii) include a multiyear strategic 

7 plan. 

8 ‘‘(3) INVOLVEMENT.—Interested parties may— 

9 ‘‘(A) submit research proposals to the advi10 sory committee; 

11 ‘‘(B) participate in merit reviews of re12 search proposals and peer reviews of research 

13 products; and 

14 ‘‘(C) receive research results. 

15 ‘‘(4) OPEN COMPETITION AND PEER REVIEW OF

16 RESEARCH PROPOSALS.—The National Academies 

17 may award research contracts and grants under the 

18 program established under this section through open 

19 competition and merit review conducted on a regular 

20 basis. 

21 ‘‘(5) RESEARCH COORDINATION.—The National 

22 Academies shall ensure that research contracts and 

23 grants awarded under this section are not duplica24 tive of— 


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1 ‘‘(A) research conducted under other coop2 erative transportation research programs gov3 erned by the National Academies; or 

4 ‘‘(B) research conducted by the Depart5 ment of Transportation or any other Federal, 

6 State, or local agency. 

7 ‘‘(6) EVALUATION OF RESEARCH.— 

8 ‘‘(A) PEER REVIEW.—Research contracts 

9 and grants under the program may allow peer 

10 review of the research results. 

11 ‘‘(B) PROGRAMMATIC EVALUATIONS.—The 

12 National Academies may conduct periodic pro13 grammatic evaluations on a regular basis of re14 search contracts and grants. 

15 ‘‘(7) DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH FIND16 INGS.—The National Academies shall disseminate 

17 research findings to researchers, practitioners, and 

18 decisionmakers through— 

19 ‘‘(A) conferences and seminars; 

20 ‘‘(B) field demonstrations; 

21 ‘‘(C) workshops; 

22 ‘‘(D) training programs; 

23 ‘‘(E) presentations; 

24 ‘‘(F) testimony to government officials; 

25 ‘‘(G) the Internet; 


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1 ‘‘(H) publications for the general public; 

2 ‘‘(I) collaboration with the National Trans3 portation Library; and 

4 ‘‘(J) other appropriate means. 

5 ‘‘(e) CONTENTS.—The national research agenda re6 quired under subsection (d)(2) shall, at a minimum, in7 clude research on— 

8 ‘‘(1) techniques for estimating and quantifying 

9 public benefits derived from freight transportation 

10 projects; 

11 ‘‘(2) the feasibility of consolidating origins and 

12 destinations for freight movement; 

13 ‘‘(3) methods for incorporating estimates of do14 mestic and international trade into landside trans15 portation planning; 

16 ‘‘(4) means of synchronizing infrastructure im17 provements with freight transportation demand; 

18 ‘‘(5) the effect of changing patterns of freight 

19 movement on transportation planning decisions; 

20 ‘‘(6) the reduction of impacts on urban commu21 nities; and 

22 ‘‘(7) other research areas to identify and ad23 dress emerging and future research needs relating to 

24 freight transportation by all modes. 

25 ‘‘(f) FUNDING.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

2 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

3 this section such sums as are necessary. 

4 ‘‘(2) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of 

5 the cost of an activity carried out under this section 

6 shall be up to 100 percent, as determined by the 

7 Secretary. 

8 ‘‘(3) ACCEPTANCE OF NON-FEDERAL FUNDS.— 

9 In addition to using funds authorized for this sec10 tion, the National Academies may seek and accept 

11 additional funding sources from— 

12 ‘‘(A) public and private entities capable of 

13 accepting funding from the Department of 

14 Transportation; 

15 ‘‘(B) States and local governments; 

16 ‘‘(C) nonprofit foundations; and 

17 ‘‘(D) the private sector.’’. 

18 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 

19 chapter 5 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by 

20 adding at the end the following: 

‘‘Sec. 

‘‘519. National cooperative freight transportation research program.’’. 

Æ 


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