U.S. Chamber Urges Congress to Preserve FY26 Transportation Funding

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pressing congressional leadership to preserve FY 2026 funding levels for all federal transportation programs in any short-term government funding measure or surface transportation extension that becomes necessary.

In a letter addressed to Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Jeffries, Majority Leader Thune, and Minority Leader Schumer, the Chamber and its allied organizations described the federal government's investment in the nation's transportation network as providing "immense value to the American public."

The letter's core demand is specific: maintain the FY 2026 funding levels already enacted for every federal transportation program, including those funded through the Highway Trust Fund and through advance appropriations. That language matters because it covers both the conventional annual appropriations process and the multi-year funding streams that flow outside it.

The business groups have not abandoned their larger goal. They still support a full, robust reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs, the letter states. But with the prospect of a short-term continuing resolution or an extension of surface transportation programs on the table, they want to lock in the enacted FY 2026 numbers rather than see them negotiated downward as part of a stopgap deal.

The warning attached to that request is concrete. According to the letter, any decision by Congress to reduce funding to federal transportation programs as part of any short-term continuing resolution or extension "will inject uncertainty into state and local investment decisions and potentially lead to delays in completing or commencing work on critical" infrastructure.

Two risks sit at the center of the Chamber's argument. The first is uncertainty at the state and local level, where transportation agencies commit to multi-year construction contracts and depend on predictable federal flows. The second is schedule slippage — projects either under way or about to break ground could stall if federal dollars shrink mid-stream.

The letter does not single out specific programs for protection beyond naming the Highway Trust Fund and advance appropriations as funding channels. Its scope is deliberately broad: all federal transportation programs, at enacted FY 2026 levels, in whatever vehicle Congress uses to keep the government and the highway programs running.

For contractors, state DOTs, and materials suppliers, the message to Capitol Hill amounts to a request for stability: whatever deal emerges on government funding, do not use transportation accounts as the offset. The Chamber's willingness to restate its support for full reauthorization while pushing this narrower ask signals the groups view a funding cut inside a stopgap as the more immediate threat.

The next test comes when Congress takes up any continuing resolution or surface transportation extension — the moment the Chamber's letter is designed to influence, and when the enacted FY 2026 levels either hold or become a bargaining chip.