H.R. 7442 — National Bridge Funding Reform Act

This section eliminates the carbon reduction program (previously under 23 U.S.C. §175, which funded projects to reduce transportation emissions) and the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) program (previously under 23 U.S.C. §176, which funded resilience projects including subsection (c) grants); establishes a new national bridge program under a revised 23 U.S.C. §175; and revises the division of states' base apportionments under 23 U.S.C. §104(b) by striking prior set-asides for the carbon reduction and PROTECT programs and establishing in their place a 5.47660865256628 percent allocation for the national bridge program (as new paragraph (7)). The national bridge program supports replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, protection, and construction of bridges on Federal-aid highways (with state flexibility to use funds for non-Federal-aid highway bridges), with funds apportioned to states 75 percent according to the proportion of total Federal-aid highway bridge deck area and 25 percent according to the proportion of such deck area in poor condition (using the National Bridge Inventory as of December 31, 2024). (Thus, the change redirects approximately 5.48 percent of base apportionments—previously split between carbon reduction and PROTECT—to bridge investments.)