Transportation & Infrastructure
As Vice Chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I’m working in a bipartisan way to bring much needed economic development to our roadways, airports, railways, local water infrastructure, and more.
The committee has jurisdiction over areas that touch every aspect of our lives - especially in the Kansas City Metro area with its strategic position as one of our nation’s major transportation and shipping hubs.
- Focusing on Kansas: I’ve made it a priority to advocate for our local needs, bringing the Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to our district to see Kansas projects in person.
- Rebuilding for the next generation: I’ve voted to pass key funding to invest more than $70 billion in green, modern, job-creating infrastructure through the appropriations process. That supports projects to improve and upgrade our roads and bridges, mass transit, and airports.
- Safety and oversight: I served as Vice-Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, which has taken a lead role on investigating the cause of two international Boeing 737 MAX crashes. We’ve held several hearings on this issue and will keep pushing to ensure we have the safest airspace in the world.
More on Transportation & Infrastructure
Yesterday, Representative Sharice Davids published a guest column in The Kansas City Star on what the bipartisan infrastructure deal passed by the Senate this month would mean for the Third District of Kansas.
Representative Sharice Davids (KS-03) issued the following statement on the Senate passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill:
MERRIAM, KS – Today, Representative Sharice Davids joined local officials to tour Upper Turkey Creek and celebrate the advancement of Davids’ request for federal funding of the Upper Turkey Creek levee project. On Thursday, the U.S. House passed legislation directing $500,000 to the project, which would eventually lead to the removal of Downtown Merriam from the FEMA-designated floodplain.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed an appropriations bill that includes $500,000 to start the upper Turkey Creek Levee project in downtown Merriam.
That’s well short of the $43 million Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids requested for the upper Turkey Creek levee project, which would go toward building 3,300 feet of levee and more than 6,800 feet of 6.5-feet tall flood walls.
Federal money from a $715 billion infrastructure bill approved by the U.S. House Thursday could make the project to expand U.S. Highway 69 in Overland Park richer, if the measure survives an eventual Senate conference.
The prospective $15 million injection —plus a state match — is targeted specifically at the 167th Street interchange.
The House vote came a week after the Overland Park City County voted to approve adding express toll lanes on U.S. 69 as the preferred way to deal with growing congestion on what has become Kansas’s busiest highway.
Today, the INVEST in America Act, a comprehensive federal surface transportation bill, passed the House, bringing it one step closer to becoming law. It includes federal funding for two infrastructure projects in the Third District, as well as two bills introduced earlier this year by Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS). Davids spoke on the House Floor ahead of the passage of the INVEST in America Act, sharing why US 69 is an example of the dire need to make long-overdue investments in our infrastructure.
A new interchange in Johnson County and electric buses for Kansas City are in the new infrastructure bill being considered by the House Wednesday.
Area lawmakers are in important positions to decide the fate of the bill. This is money for roads, bridges and promoting climate change. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves is the top Republican on the House Infrastructure Committee and U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, is the vice chair.
"I think what we're seeing, in my view, is some real momentum getting built up," Davids said.
Rep. Davids joined Alex Witt on Sunday, June 27 to speak on the new bipartisan infrastructure framework, the American Families Plan, the Child Tax Credit, the January 6th House Select Committee, and Pride at the White House.
I met with President Biden and my Republican colleagues earlier this year to discuss infrastructure and share the priorities of the Third District, and today, I am glad to see his Administration make bipartisan progress on those goals. I look forward to working with President Biden and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee to review this framework, and I will continue pushing for a package that creates good paying jobs, tackles climate change, and sets the foundation for economic growth for years to come.
Today, Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) announced that after a 19-hour markup, the INVEST in America Act passed out of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee with bipartisan support and several Kansas priorities included.