Surface Transportation Research and Development Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7214 To authorize appropriations to the Department of Transportation for surface transportation research, development, and deployment, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 15, 2020 Ms. JOHNSON of Texas (for herself, Mr. LUCAS, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. WEBER of Texas, and Ms. STEVENS) introduced the following bill; which was re- ferred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and in addi- tion to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider- ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To authorize appropriations to the Department of Transpor- tation for surface transportation research, development, and deployment, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4 ‘‘Surface Transportation Research and Development Act 5 of 2020’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7214 IH (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 1 this Act is as follows: 2 Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. TITLE I—HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH Sec. 101. Authorization of appropriations. Sec. 102. Amendment to Highway Safety Improvement project definition. Sec. 103. Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program. Sec. 104. Amendment to the Exploratory Advanced Research Program. Sec. 105. Amendment to the State Planning and Research Program. Sec. 106. Road weather centers of excellence. TITLE II—MULTIMODAL TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH Sec. 201. Authorization of appropriations. Sec. 202. Advisory council on transportation statistics. Sec. 203. Amendments to the University Transportation Centers Program. Sec. 204. Resilient Transportation Infrastructure Centers of Excellence. Sec. 205. Transportation data for healthy living study pilot. Sec. 206. National cooperative freight transportation research program. Sec. 207. Heavy Freight Autonomous Trucking Research Corridor. Sec. 208. Strategic Transportation Research Program. Sec. 209. Advanced Transportation Research and Innovation Program. Sec. 210. Rail Cooperative Research Program. Sec. 211. Multimodal Transportation Demonstration Program. Sec. 212. Advisory Council on Transportation Research and Development. Sec. 213. Transportation research and development 5-year strategic plan. TITLE I—HIGHWAY 3 TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH 4 SEC. 101. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The following amounts are au- 6 thorized to be appropriated out of the Highway Trust 7 Fund (other than the Mass Transit Account): 8 (1) HIGHWAY SAFETY RESEARCH AND DEVEL- 9 OPMENT.—To carry out section 403 of title 23, 10 United States Code— 11 (A) $152,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 12 (B) $161,880,000 for fiscal year 2022; 13 (C) $172,402,000 for fiscal year 2023; 14 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7214 IH (D) $183,608,000 for fiscal year 2024; 1 and 2 (E) $195,543,000 for fiscal year 2025. 3 (2) HIGHWAY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 4 PROGRAM.—To carry out sections 503(b) and 520 of 5 title 23, United States Code— 6 (A) $142,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 7 (B) $151,230,000 for fiscal year 2022; 8 (C) $161,060,000 for fiscal year 2023; 9 (D) $171,530,000 for fiscal year 2024; 10 and 11 (E) $182,680,000 for fiscal year 2025. 12 (3) TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION DEPLOY- 13 MENT PROGRAM.—To carry out section 503(c) of 14 title 23, United States Code— 15 (A) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 16 (B) $74,550,000 for fiscal year 2022; 17 (C) $79,396,000 for fiscal year 2023; 18 (D) $84,556,000 for fiscal year 2024; and 19 (E) $90,053,000 for fiscal year 2025. 20 (4) ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION AND CONGES- 21 TION MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES DEPLOYMENT 22 PROGRAM.—To carry out section 503(c)(4) of title 23 23, United States Code— 24 (A) $60,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7214 IH (B) $60,000,000 for fiscal year 2022; 1 (C) $60,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; 2 (D) $60,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; and 3 (E) $60,000,000 for fiscal year 2025. 4 (5) TRAINING AND EDUCATION.—To carry out 5 section 504 of title 23, United States Code— 6 (A) $27,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 7 (B) $28,755,000 for fiscal year 2022; 8 (C) $30,624,000 for fiscal year 2023; 9 (D) $32,615,000 for fiscal year 2024; and 10 (E) $34,735,000 for fiscal year 2025. 11 (6) INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS 12 PROGRAM.—To carry out sections 512 through 518 13 of title 23, United States Code— 14 (A) $158,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 15 (B) $168,270,000 for fiscal year 2022; 16 (C) $179,208,000 for fiscal year 2023; 17 (D) $190,856,000 for fiscal year 2024; 18 and 19 (E) $203,262,000 for fiscal year 2025. 20 (b) APPLICABILITY OF TITLE 23, UNITED STATES 21 CODE.—Funds authorized to be appropriated by sub- 22 section (a) shall— 23 (1) be available for obligation in the same man- 24 ner as if those funds were appropriated under chap- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7214 IH ter 1 of title 23, United States Code, except that the 1 Federal share of the cost of a project or activity car- 2 ried out using those funds shall be 80 percent, un- 3 less otherwise expressly provided by this Act (includ- 4 ing the amendments by this Act) or otherwise deter- 5 mined by the Secretary; and 6 (2) remain available until expended and not be 7 transferable. 8 SEC. 102. AMENDMENT TO HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVE- 9 MENT PROJECT DEFINITION. 10 Section 148(a)(4)(B) of title 23, United States Code, 11 is amended by adding at the end the following: 12 ‘‘(xxix) Education. 13 ‘‘(xxx) Enforcement. 14 ‘‘(xxxi) Research activities. 15 ‘‘(xxxii) Cybersecurity.’’. 16 SEC. 103. BEHAVIORAL TRAFFIC SAFETY COOPERATIVE RE- 17 SEARCH PROGRAM. 18 Section 403(f) of title 23, United States Code, is 19 amended— 20 (1) by striking ‘‘$2,500,000’’ and inserting 21 ‘‘$3,500,000’’; and 22 (2) by striking ‘‘fiscal year ending before’’ and 23 all that follows through ‘‘December 4, 2015’’ and in- 24 serting ‘‘of fiscal years 2021 through 2025’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 7214 IH SEC. 104. AMENDMENT TO THE EXPLORATORY ADVANCED 1 RESEARCH PROGRAM. 2 Section 503(b)(6) of title 23, United States Code, is 3 amended to read as follows: 4 ‘‘(6) EXPLORATORY ADVANCED RESEARCH.— 5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 6 carry out long-term, exploratory advanced re- 7 search activities to develop potentially trans- 8 formational solutions to improve the durability, 9 efficiency, environmental impact, productivity, 10 and safety aspects of highway and intermodal 11 transportation systems, including by— 12 ‘‘(i) awarding competitive grants and 13 cooperative agreements to institutions of 14 higher education and other nonprofit re- 15 search organizations; 16 ‘‘(ii) leveraging the targeted capabili- 17 ties of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Re- 18 search Center to develop technologies and 19 innovations of national importance; and 20 ‘‘(iii) collaborating with other Federal 21 agencies with relevant expertise, including 22 the National Science Foundation, the Na- 23 tional Institute of Standards and Tech- 24 nology, and the Department of Energy. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 7214 IH ‘‘(B) FUNDING.—From funds made avail- 1 able to carry out this subsection, the Secretary 2 shall obligate $25,000,000 to carry out this 3 paragraph for each of fiscal years 2021 through 4 2025.’’. 5 SEC. 105. AMENDMENT TO THE STATE PLANNING AND RE- 6 SEARCH PROGRAM. 7 Section 505(b) of title 23, United States Code, is 8 amended by adding at the end the following: 9 ‘‘(4) FLEXIBILITY.—In addition to the min- 10 imum expenditures required under paragraph (1), of 11 the sums apportioned to a State under paragraphs 12 (1) through (5) of section 104(b), a State may re- 13 quest, and the Secretary may grant, that such State 14 may use additional funds under such paragraphs for 15 multi-state pooled fund research activities.’’. 16 SEC. 106. ROAD WEATHER CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE. 17 Chapter 5 of title 23, United States Code, is amended 18 by adding at the end the following: 19 ‘‘SEC. 520. ROAD WEATHER CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE. 20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in collaboration 21 with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- 22 tion and the National Science Foundation, shall carry out 23 a program to make awards to institutions of higher edu- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 7214 IH cation or nonprofit research organizations to establish re- 1 gional road weather research and development centers. 2 ‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the centers estab- 3 lished using funds under subsection (a) shall be to— 4 ‘‘(1) maximize use of available road weather in- 5 formation and technologies; 6 ‘‘(2) expand road weather research and develop- 7 ment efforts to enhance roadway safety, mobility, 8 and transportation system efficiency while mini- 9 mizing environmental impacts; 10 ‘‘(3) support research and development focused 11 on improving road weather information for auto- 12 mated vehicles and automated transportation sys- 13 tems; 14 ‘‘(4) promoting the adoption of road weather in- 15 formation and technologies by Federal, State, and 16 local governments, and private entities; and 17 ‘‘(5) foster collaboration among academic re- 18 searchers, the private sector, State and local govern- 19 ments, and nongovernmental organizations, includ- 20 ing transportation, meteorological, and other organi- 21 zations. 22 ‘‘(c) ACTIVITIES.—The activities of the program es- 23 tablished in subsection (a) shall include— 24 ‘‘(1) supporting research and development to— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 7214 IH ‘‘(A) integrate existing observational net- 1 works, including mobile and fixed sensor net- 2 works, and data management systems for road 3 weather applications; 4 ‘‘(B) improve weather modeling capabilities 5 and forecast tools, such as the road surface and 6 atmospheric interface; 7 ‘‘(C) enhance mechanisms for commu- 8 nicating road weather information to users, 9 such as transportation officials and the public; 10 ‘‘(D) understand the human and cultural 11 factors in driver decision making in response to 12 road weather hazards and in response to the de- 13 livery of road weather information; and 14 ‘‘(E) integrate road weather technologies 15 into an information infrastructure; 16 ‘‘(2) improving coordination of research, devel- 17 opment, testing, and implementation of road weather 18 information technologies and automated vehicle and 19 automated transportation systems technologies; 20 ‘‘(3) partnering with private sector entities to 21 promote secure voluntary data sharing for the pur- 22 poses of this section; 23 ‘‘(4) supporting implementation of road weather 24 information technology and improved communication 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 7214 IH of road weather information to the public and other 1 users, including transportation officials, emergency 2 managers, and vehicle manufacturers; 3 ‘‘(5) improving education and training of road 4 weather information users, such as State and local 5 transportation officials and private sector transpor- 6 tation contractors; and 7 ‘‘(6) coordinating with transportation weather 8 research activities in other modes, such as transit, 9 railroad, and aviation. 10 ‘‘(d) REQUIREMENTS.— 11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An institution of higher 12 education or an eligible nonprofit organization (or a 13 consortium thereof) seeking funding under this sub- 14 section shall submit an application to the Secretary 15 at such time, in such manner, and containing such 16 information as the Secretary may require. 17 ‘‘(2) APPLICATIONS.—Each application under 18 paragraph (1) shall include a description of— 19 ‘‘(A) how the institution of higher edu- 20 cation or eligible nonprofit organization (or con- 21 sortium thereof) will work together with other 22 research institutions, industry partners, and 23 State and local transportation officials to carry 24 out activities described in subsection (c); and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 7214 IH ‘‘(B) how the institution of higher edu- 1 cation or eligible nonprofit organization (or con- 2 sortium thereof) will promote multidisciplinary 3 research to improve road weather information 4 implementation. 5 ‘‘(3) SELECTION AND DURATION.—The Sec- 6 retary, in consultation with National Oceanic and 7 Atmospheric Administration and the National 8 Science Foundation, shall select not less than six re- 9 gional centers that represent diverse geographic re- 10 gions and weather patterns, and to the extent pos- 11 sible be located along major United States transpor- 12 tation corridors. Each center established under this 13 section is authorized to carry out activities for a pe- 14 riod of 5 years, renewable for an additional 5 years 15 at the discretion of the Director. 16 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Of the 17 amounts made available by section 101(a)(2) of the Sur- 18 face Transportation Research and Development Act of 19 2020, $12,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2021 20 through 2025 shall be made available to carry out this 21 section.’’. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7214.IH H7214 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 7214 IH TITLE II—MULTIMODAL 1 TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH 2 SEC. 201. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 3 (a) UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION CENTERS PRO [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]