After years of soaring costs and an affordability crisis, the last thing Americans need is a bloated highway bill that wastes taxpayers’ dollars while imposing higher costs on consumers. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s getting kicked around the halls of Congress right now: a pork-filled monstrosity masquerading as a highway bill.

The legislation in question is the deceptively named “BUILD America 250 Act,” a massive $580-billion surface transportation bill. It’s supposed to fund roads and bridges, but instead is jampacked with new regulations, bureaucracy, and waste as politicians keep tacking on boondoggles. Exhibit A: the Railway Safety Act.

Despite its name, the act doesn’t improve railway safety but does impose a slew of new mandates and costs. It would impose draconian standards on America’s railroads and lock in older technologies, thereby discouraging the very innovation that has made these railroads the most efficient in the world.

Another unnecessary feature, increases in crew sizes (a giveaway to unions), is an additional cost that will be passed on to consumers. As costs mount, some businesses choose to ship by truck rather than rail, which means more congestion on the very highways the bill is supposed to fix.

Between shifting........

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