United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Committee information

• Date created: 1946
• Members: Sixty-five in the 119th Congress (2025)
• Subcommittees: Aviation; Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation; Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management; Highways and Transit; Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials; Water Resources and Environment.

Role

The United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a committee in the House of Representatives whose main purpose is to oversee rules and laws regarding transportation and infrastructure in the United States. The committee is among the oldest in Congress, and it is the contemporary version of a public works committee formed in the 1830s. The committee was originally responsible for public buildings and the grounds around them. Over time, however, the committee’s responsibilities have greatly expanded. Its duties include oversight of federal buildings and grounds, all means of travel in the United States, and the infrastructure used to travel. The nation’s aviation systems, railways, highways, bridges, maritime systems, waterways, and other systems of mass transportation are all under the committee’s jurisdiction. The committee also oversees some aspects of the US Coast Guard.

The committee oversees other essential infrastructure, including transportation systems, utility systems, and other systems necessary for the effective functioning of the country and the economy. This includes the nation’s water and wastewater management systems, the electric grid, power plants, gas and oil pipelines, and other systems. The committee oversees the transportation of hazardous materials and aspects of disaster preparedness. The committee also oversees programs designed to encourage development in depressed communities.

The committee also oversees federal buildings of great historical and practical importance, including the United States Capitol building, congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress building, and all the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution. The committee monitors the purchase of land and the construction of new buildings, including federal courthouses and post offices.

Other areas the committee oversees include the rules, laws, and licensing related to navigation vessels. The committee has power over the regulation of water transportation, including issues such as bridges, dams, lighthouses, flood control projects, and inland waterways. The operation of the Coast Guard, including the Coast Guard Academy, and aspects of the Merchant Marines are also under the committee’s oversight.

Nearly all aspects of transportation by air, sea, rail, and road are under the committee’s jurisdiction. This includes the construction and maintenance of roadways and railroad infrastructure. It also includes transportation safety, except for the national security functions under the jurisdiction of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Homeland Security. The committee also has oversight over the transportation of hazardous materials. The committee is also responsible for the systems that generate and transport resources such as water and electricity.

The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure also has jurisdiction over several aspects of the federal management of natural disasters and national emergencies. This means the committee oversees aspects of the Department of Transportation (DoT), the General Services Administration (GSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Amtrak Train system.

The wide and varied responsibilities of the committee require a large number of members to maintain sufficient oversight. As a result, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is one of the largest in the House of Representatives, typically made up of between sixty-five and seventy members. It has six subcommittees: Aviation; the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation; Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management; Highways and Transit; Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials; and Water Resources and Environment.

History

One of the main purposes of the federal government is to oversee and provide for the necessities that individual states and cities cannot. This includes roads, railroads, and waterway improvements and systems that connect the different parts of the country. It also includes buildings and facilities—such as post offices, courthouses, and some historical sites—that exist for the common good. America’s founders knew such buildings and infrastructure would be necessary, and they included the authority to create and oversee them in the US Constitution.

Within about thirty years of the country’s founding, the first congressional committee to oversee public works and facilities was formed. The Committee on Post Office and Post Roads was formed in 1808, and it had authority over establishing routes for the delivery of the mail. This responsibility is now part of the oversight of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, although the remainder of the 1808 committee’s responsibilities were absorbed by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform when it was formed in 1946.

In the 1830s, Congress created several committees, including the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. In 1831, the Committee on Roads and Canals was created, and in 1837, Congress formed the Public Building and Grounds Committee. Other committees—such as the Committee on Rivers and Harbors established in 1883—related to transportation were also created. In 1946, Congress recognized that the committee system had grown too large to be truly efficient. The number of committees was cut drastically, from forty-eight to nineteen in the House and from thirty-three to fifteen in the Senate. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was one of the nineteen committees in the House. This committee is unique to the House. Although many committees exist in both the House and the Senate, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is found only in the House.

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the earlier committees whose functions it encompasses were crucial to America’s successful development. The roads, railways, canals, and waterways under its jurisdiction required development and care to be able to connect and unite the many communities that are part of the nation. The committee's work helped make transporting goods and people more efficient, safer, and less expensive. Without the committee's oversight, it would have been difficult for America to grow and expand from coast to coast.

Subcommittees

The responsibilities of the Committee are divided among six subcommittees. Each subcommittee focuses on a different area of the Committee’s jurisdiction. This division of responsibilities helps to provide more efficient oversight. The subcommittees can investigate—including by calling witnesses and issuing subpoenas—the issues over which they have jurisdiction. The subcommittees also help draft legislation pertaining to the issues over which they have oversight.

United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation

This subcommittee has responsibility for oversight of nearly all aspects of civil air flight. This includes all functions of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), except for research. It also supervises the National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB), which, among other things, investigates accidents and near misses involving planes and trains. The committee’s oversight extends to other aspects of air transportation, including air safety and air traffic management. The subcommittee also deals with consumer protection in relation to air travel and transportation. The committee has oversight nearly everything related to civil aviation, from making sure small communities have sufficient access to air travel to managing issues related to international air travel. The subcommittee’s duties change as technology changes transportation. For example, the subcommittee oversees unpiloted flights.

United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on the US Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation

This subcommittee has primary oversight for the US Coast Guard, which is America’s law enforcement agency on coastal waterways and the ocean. The Coast Guard conducts water search and rescue missions as well as missions to control and intercept the smuggling of drugs and other contraband. Prevention and response to oil spills and enforcement of laws related to pollution are also the responsibility of the Coast Guard and are under the oversight of this subcommittee. The subcommittee also oversees the safety and efficiency of ports as well as the laws related to water-borne transportation of people and cargo.

United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management

The functions of FEMA, disaster preparedness and response, and some of the functions of the Department of Homeland Security are under this subcommittee’s jurisdiction. This subcommittee is also responsible for the oversight of the design, building, renovation and maintenance of all federal buildings under the authority of the GSA, including rented space used by federal employees. This includes businesses used for federal business purposes as well as a number of others, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Gallery of Art, which are federally owned and controlled.

United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit

This subcommittee is one of the larger subcommittees under the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. It has jurisdiction over the planning, design, and maintenance of all highway and transit programs, including their safety. One of its most significant twenty-first-century initiatives is the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. This multiyear, $305 billion project was approved in December 2015 and extended through 2020. It was intended to promote innovation and improvement in the nation’s roadways and other travel infrastructure. The Highways and Transit Subcommittee in the 119th Congress planned to focus on developing and passing a comprehensive surface transportation reauthorization.

United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

This subcommittee oversees the key areas of railway travel and transport, including safety and economic regulation. Economic regulation is a term used for government influence in private business, presumably to strengthen the economic future of a necessary aspect of infrastructure or to look out for public concerns such as the environment. This oversight extends to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, known as Amtrak. Amtrak is the nation’s largest provider of passenger train transportation between major cities. The subcommittee also has jurisdiction over the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which administers railroad safety laws and the development and maintenance of railroad infrastructure. The FRA is the government agency responsible for Amtrak and for oversight of the national security interests of the country’s rail system. In addition, this subcommittee is responsible for overseeing America’s oil pipelines and monitoring and overseeing the creation and enforcement of policies and regulations related to transporting hazardous materials.

United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

This subcommittee is focused on the oversight of issues related to water resource management, conservation, and development. It oversees the work of the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA, especially those involving pollution and restoration of polluted waterways and the clean-up of situations such as oil spills and hazardous waste discharges. Other efforts under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee include the prevention of flooding and beach erosion, fish and wildlife control, hydroelectric power plants, and the restoration and enhancement of waterways. The protection of the nation’s water and surrounding environment, from groundwater to coastal shoreways, are all under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee.

Bibliography

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