STATEMENT: Climate Mayors Executive Director Urges Changes to BUILD America 250 Act to Avoid Making the Household Affordability Crisis Worse
Washington, DC (May 20, 2026) - Climate Mayors Executive Director Kate Wright issued the following statement in response to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s BUILD America 250 Act:
“Climate Mayors is deeply concerned the BUILD America 250 Act fails to meet the scale of the affordability and infrastructure challenges facing American families and communities. While the bill contains provisions including continued investment in public transit and expanded opportunities for local and regional governments to access federal transportation funding, the legislation overall moves in the wrong direction on affordability, resilience to extreme weather, and transportation choice.
“At a time when Americans are struggling with rising household costs, the bill’s proposed $130 annual federal fee on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are punitive and unfair, particularly for seniors, working families, and city residents who drive on average 46% fewer miles per year than rural drivers. The fee would barely make a dent in the structural shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, and is clearly just another attempt to constrain EV and hybrid market growth. The bill also eliminates local governments’ access to federal grants dedicated to building out EV charging in their communities. Taken together, these policies would do little more than discourage adoption of lower-cost transportation options and leave more Americans exposed to volatile gas prices and ongoing fuel cost pressures.
“The BUILD America 250 Act reduces and restructures programs focused on transportation resilience and disaster preparedness at a time when Americans desperately need forward-looking investments. Communities across the country are already facing more frequent and severe flooding, storms, heat waves, insurance premium spikes, dropped coverage, and infrastructure disruptions that threaten public safety and local economies. Dedicated funding streams for resilient, sustainable transportation projects give cities the funding needed to make crucial long-term investments without having to choose between fixing what's broken today and protecting residents from what's coming tomorrow.
Climate Mayors urges the Committee to continue to work toward bipartisan consensus on a long-term surface transportation bill. However, much more work is needed to ensure the final legislation meaningfully addresses today’s affordability crisis while making the long-term investments necessary to build safer, more resilient, and more sustainable cities for the future. We urge Committee members to address these shortcomings before the BUILD America 250 Act moves out of Committee.”
This follows Boise Mayor and Climate Mayors Chair, Lauren McLean's statement earlier this week in response to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s proposal for an unprecedented new annual fee on electric and hybrid vehicles included in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill.
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