Norton Secures Victories for D.C. In Surface Transportation Bill, Defeats Perry Amendment to Eliminate Grant Funding for WMATA

May 22, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee (T&I) marked up and passed the surface transportation reauthorization bill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was pleased with the victories she was able to secure for D.C. in the bill, particularly the defeat of an amendment by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) that would have struck a provision extending authorization of grant funding for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Perry’s amendment to eliminate this extension of grant funding for WMATA was soundly defeated by nearly 40 votes with every Democrat present voting against it in addition to more than half of the Republicans.

The grant funding Perry’s amendment would have eliminated was first authorized for fiscal year 2009 and has since been reauthorized in subsequent surface transportation bills, most recently in President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), passed in 2021. The bill the Committee passed early this morning would extend the authorization to fiscal year 2031, when the Committee is expected to begin developing the next surface transportation reauthorization bill.

The surface transportation bill is reauthorized every five years and sets the funding, policies, and priorities for the nation's highways, public transit, and rail programs. The last reauthorization was included in the 2021 IIJA.

"I’m pleased to have secured critical victories for the District in the surface transportation reauthorization bill, most notably the resounding defeat of Rep. Perry’s partisan attempt to eliminate essential federal grant funding for WMATA," Norton said. "By a nearly 40-vote margin, a bipartisan majority of the Committee rejected this reckless amendment, ensuring that Metro can continue to safely and reliably move D.C. residents, the federal workforce, and millions of visitors across our region. This bill extends WMATA’s grant authorization through fiscal year 2031, providing the long-term stability our transit system needs to remain the backbone of the nation's capital.

“I’m also pleased that, despite the increasingly polarized and partisan state of our politics, this bipartisan bill managed to contain so many victories for the nation and its capital, including four of my bills. It enables critical investments in passenger rail, including making the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation eligible for five significant federal grant programs. It equips the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration with the tools needed to protect consumers from predatory household moving company fraud, and it makes 'blue envelope' programs, which improve interactions between police officers and drivers with difficulty communicating through speech during traffic stops, eligible for federal transportation grants for the first time. Significantly – and unusually, for the current Congress – the bill passed out of committee contains no riders targeting D.C.

"The bill delivers broad investments in our nation's roads, bridges, transit, and bike infrastructure, which will boost our economy by increasing the country's capacity to safely transport goods and people. I'm proud of the scope of critical issues this legislation addresses and look forward to its House passage.”

Norton secured the following victories in the bill:

Provides $1.596 billion for D.C. in federal-aid highway funding over the five-year life of the bill, compared to $1.342 billion over the five-year life of IIJA. The amounts for all core transit formulas go up, and D.C. is added to several new transit formulas it was excluded from in the IIJA.
Includes the full text of the Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act, a Norton bill to equip the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) with the necessary tools to protect consumers from a growing type of fraud perpetrated by scammers in the interstate transportation of household goods and also establishes a household goods consumer protection working group (Sec. 5301-5305).
Extends section 601(f) of the Passenger Rail Improvement Act of 2008 to provide federal funding for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority capital projects and preventive maintenance through 2031 (Sec. 3109).
Includes the full text of the District of Columbia Transportation Funding Equality Act, a Norton bill that would treat D.C. the same as the states within the Bus and Bus Facilities formula program (Sec. 3024) and the Growing States and High-Density formula program (Sec. 3025) and would make D.C. eligible for grants under the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program (Sec. 1119) and the National Culvert Removal, Replacement and Restoration Grant Program (Sec. 7107).
Includes provisions from Norton’s Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) Funding Eligibility Act, making USRC eligible for grants under the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program, Mega, Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program, and National Intercity Passenger Rail Partnership program (NIPRP, formerly Federal-State Partnership), as well as the new Surface Transportation Accelerator Grant program (BUILD—Sec. 7506; Mega—Section 7505; CRISI—Sec. 10104; NIPRP—Sec. 10106; STAG—Sec. 1124).
Includes Norton’s Blue Envelope Act of 2025, making blue envelope programs eligible for funds under NHTSA’s 402 grant program (Sec. 4002).
Clarifies the Secretary has the power to remove a commercial driver training provider from the official Training Provider Registry for failure to maintain and enforce policies against sexual assault (Sec. 5204).
Codifies the Transit Workforce Center to train frontline transit workers and funds the Center at the same levels as the National Transit Institute with dedicated Highway Trust Fund dollars (Sec. 3010).
Does not include any riders targeting the District of Columbia.

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