Sponsors (6)
Creates a National Bridge Program and directs 5.47660865256628% of certain Title 23 highway funds to a formula split 75% by total deck area and 25% by poor‑condition deck area (NBI as of 12/31/2024).
Official title: To eliminate the Carbon Reduction Program and PROTECT Program and dedicate the funding to a new bridge formula program that distributes funding based primarily on overall deck area, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 9, 2026 by Troy E. Nehls · Last progress February 9, 2026
The bill directs new, targeted federal money to fix and preserve bridges—improving safety and reducing long‑term costs—but does so by diverting a fixed share of highway funds away from other transportation, emissions‑reduction, and resilience programs and locks allocations to a 2024 snapshot that may misalign with future needs.
State and local governments (and the people who use their roads) receive a dedicated federal funding stream to replace, rehabilitate, preserve, protect, and build bridges, improving travel safety and reducing detours and closures.
States with larger bridge deck area and more poor-condition deck area get proportionally larger shares, directing more money to areas with worse bridge conditions and targeting the greatest needs.
Targeted bridge funding helps reduce long-term repair costs and economic disruption from bridge failures, protecting commerce, daily travel, and taxpayer money over time.
The bill redirects a fixed share of highway apportionments to bridges, reducing funds available for other transportation programs and projects that states previously funded from those apportionments.
Shifting money away from the carbon reduction and PROTECT subsections weakens federal support for emissions‑reducing and resilience projects, potentially slowing climate mitigation and adaptation work.
Allocations are fixed using the National Bridge Inventory snapshot as of December 31, 2024, which may not reflect future deterioration, new bridges, or changed local priorities, causing mismatches over time.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new federal National Bridge Program that directs a fixed share of highway formula funds to replace, rehabilitate, preserve, protect, and build bridges on Federal‑aid highways. The bill sets a new apportionment of 5.47660865256628% of certain Title 23 highway funds to the program, specifies how funds are distributed among States (75% by share of total deck area, 25% by share of deck area of bridges in poor condition), allows States to use funds on non‑Federal‑aid bridges, and removes two prior statutory programs to accommodate the change.