Peters Secured Provisions to Strengthen Michigan’s Transportation Infrastructure, Improve Roadway Safety, Expand Access to Affordable Housing, and Combat PFAS Contamination

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) helped the Senate Appropriations Committee pass the Fiscal Year 2025 Transportation, Housing, Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The bipartisan legislation would provide federal funding for high-impact local projects in Michigan and federal programs that support key transportation, community, and workforce development initiatives. The legislation would also help advance auto safety and innovation, and provide assistance for airports to transition away from PFAS firefighting foam at airports.  

“This legislation delivers on key priorities for Michigan and our entire country,” said Senator Peters. “It will allow our communities to improve their infrastructure, design safer transit systems, invest in education and youth programming, and build housing for the people who need it most. Every day, I hear from constituents who want the federal government to support programs like these, and this commonsense, bipartisan bill creates strong opportunities to make those key investments.”  

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is considering their own funding bills. The Senate and House will need to reach an agreement on a final funding bill before being sent to the President to be signed into law.  

The bill includes measures led and supported by Peters, including:  

Support for Michigan Airports  

Bishop International Airport Authority: Peters secured $1 million to replace the terminal roof airside at Bishop International Airport in Flint. This project will help to eliminate water penetration, protect the structure of the facility, and improve energy efficiency and safety.   

Capital Region International Airport: Peters secured $6 million for the Capital Region Airport Authority to design, acquire, and install new passenger boarding bridges at the Capital Region International Airport in Lansing.  

Cherry Capital Airport Terminal Renovations: Peters secured more than $1.6 million in funding to make improvements to the terminal building and roof at Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City.   

Upgrading Michigan’s Transportation Infrastructure  

Reconstruction of Mound Road from 8 Mile to I-696: Peters secured $1 million to contribute to the second phase of the Mound Road Reconstruction project, which is improving a corridor in Warren that serves critical defense and manufacturing entities.   

Saginaw Road Bridge Reconstruction Project: Peters secured nearly $1million to replace the Saginaw Road Bridge, the primary east-west route over the Tittabawassee River connecting the cities of Midland, Coleman, and Clare. The bridge was heavily damaged by the dam breaks and severe flooding in mid-Michigan in 2020.   

Ann Arbor Train Station: Peters secured $1 million for the design, public engagement, and environmental assessment process for a new train station in Ann Arbor, which is the highest passenger volume train station in the state.  

Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail Pathway to Good Harbor: Peters secured $3 million to complete the last 4.3 miles of the 27-mile Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.    

Michigan Central Intermodal Passenger Station: Peters secured $2 million for the City of Detroit to support the early phases of development of a new intermodal bus and rail passenger facility at Michigan Central Station in Detroit.   

Grand Rapids Public Transportation Collision Avoidance and Pedestrian Alert System: Peters secured $750,000 for the Interurban Transit Partnership to equip Rapid buses with technology to reduce crashes and improve transit safety throughout the Grand Rapids community.    

Woodward Avenue Dedicated Transit Lanes: Peters secured $3million for the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan. The funding would be used to extend and build new dedicated transit lanes on Woodward Avenue to expand public transportation along the corridor.   

Ecorse Creek Bridge and Culvert Replacement: Peters secured $2.5 million for the Downriver Community Conference to support the Ecorse Creek ecosystem restoration project to alleviate flooding in the North Branch Ecorse Creek watershed. The project aims to remove and replace bridges and culverts that contribute to flooding in the area.  

Funding to Accelerate Safe and Transparent Deployment of Automated Driving Systems: Peters secured $13.9 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Automation Safety to expedite safe development of automated driving systems by setting safety standards, evaluating exemption petitions, and overseeing safety demonstrations. 

Improving Transparency on Vehicle Safety Technology Performance: The bill includes $3.5 million for NHTSA’s Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) Program. The program focuses on collaboration between automakers and federal agencies to share data on and improve the performance of leading-edge technologies, such as autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems.  

Department of Transportation (DOT): The bill provides robust funding for the Department of Transportation to ensure the U.S. continues to maintain safe, reliable air travel, improve the safety of our roads, bridges, and rail infrastructure, and implement modern transit.    

RAISE Grants: The bill provides significant funding for the RAISE Grant program which helps communities make needed investments in their transportation infrastructure that help improve safety.    

Bolster Federal Aviation Administration Staffing: The bill provides funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to increase its air traffic controller workforce by adding 2,000 new controllers, improving training facilities at the air traffic controller academy, and hiring 55 new aviation safety inspectors. The bill also fully funds the FAA’s telecommunications and IT systems that prevent flight delays and disruptions. It also directs funding for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) which helps improve airport infrastructure while reducing carbon emissions.    

Highways and Bridges: The bill provides robust funding for federal highways, including funding for the Highway Trust Fund and Highway Infrastructure Programs.   

Bolstering Communities and Local Economic Development   

Inkster Ampitheater and Farmers Market: Peters secured $1.5 million for the City of Inkster to create an outdoor community space in the city’s downtown area, including an amphitheater and a canopy shed to support the local farmers market.   

Essexville-Hampton Regional STEM Center: Peters secured $1.7 million to help create an Essexville-Hampton Public Schools Regional STEM Center that would provide STEM related educational opportunities to the Bay Region, benefiting students and the greater community.   

Pontiac Youth Recreation Center Project: Peters secured $2 million for the City of Pontiac to support demolishing the unsafe, vacant McCarroll school property and replacing it with a new Pontiac Youth Recreation Center.  

Expanding Access to Quality, Affordable Housing  

Garner Street Housing Development in Southfield: Peters secured $1.2 million for the City of Southfield to build 57 units of single and multi-family housing for low to moderate income city residents.   

Grand Traverse Band Long-Term Housing Facility to Support Substance Abuse Recovery: Peters secured $515,000 for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The funding would be used for planning and design of the development of a long-term housing facility to support substance abuse recovery. The facility would provide persons recovering from substance abuse and related issues with stable housing to facilitate long-term recovery.  

Increases the Supply of Affordable Housing: As communities across the nation continue to face a shortage of affordable homes, the bill makes critical investments to increase the supply of housing so that Americans can keep a roof over their head. The bill includes: 

• $1.425 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, a $175 million increase above fiscal year 2024. The HOME Program is the primary federal tool for state and local governments to produce affordable rental and owner-occupied housing. This funding level will allow for construction of more than 8,400 new affordable homebuyer and rental units. 
• $100 million for the third year of the “Yes In My Back Yard” grant program to help address state and local zoning and land use laws and regulations that limit the number of units that can be built, and are a significant contributor to the lack of housing supply and production. $4.6 billion for local community development and affordable housing needs through the Community Development Block Grant formula program and Economic Development Initiatives. 
• $115 million for Section 202 Housing for the Elderly Capital Advance grants, which will lead to over 900 new units of affordable, supportive rental housing for low-income seniors.    

Expands Access to Housing Assistance for Tribes: The bill provides a record $1.455 billion for the Native American Housing Block Grant program, a $111 million increase over fiscal year 2024. Through this historic level of funding and the sustained investment in the Tribal Housing and Related Agency Infrastructure Interagency Task Force, the bill will make significant progress in addressing the dire housing needs of Indian Country, where residents are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty and nearly three times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions compared to other U.S. households.  

Workforce Development  

Expanding Access to Maritime Workforce Training: Peters secured $4.8 million for the Maritime Administration’s Student Incentive Payment (SIP) Program, which helps cadets offset the cost of tuition, uniforms, books, and living costs. Last year, Peters’ CADETS Act was signed into law, which expands the eligibility age for the SIP Program to include any qualified student who will meet the age requirements for enlistment in the U.S. Navy Reserve at their time of graduation, and ensure that high-performing, non-traditional cadets can receive this funding.  

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA): The bill provides $401 million for the PHMSA, which includes $235 million for pipeline safety and $87 million for hazardous materials safety, including to address NTSB recommendations related to the East Palestine incident.  

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: The bill includes language Peters secured that directs the Federal Highway Administration to update its regulations to encourage uniform electric vehicle charging infrastructure adoption, which will make EV charging easier and more convenient for consumers and manufacturers.     

Protecting Domestic Manufacturers from Unauthorized Drone Use: A Peters-led provision directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to address the threat that unauthorized drone use poses to the security of major manufacturing plants, including domestic automotive manufacturing sites.   

Reducing Deaths and Serious Roadway Injuries: The bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to incentivize and accelerate the deployment of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C–V2X) technologies, which connect vehicles to each other and the infrastructure around them. This technology enables school bus safety and collision avoidance applications while improving emergency responder response times and pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorcyclist safety.    

Improving Vehicle Safety Recalls: Peters secured language in the bill that seeks to improve the process of notifying vehicle owners about vehicle recalls and encouraging them to obtain free repairs. This provision supports continued rollout of NHTSA’s State Process for Informing Consumers of Recalls, which helps states to establish a process to inform consumers about open recalls when they register or renew their vehicles with the DMV. This encourages consumers to obtain free repairs for recalls which, left unaddressed, risks the safety of vehicle occupants and other road users.  

Increasing Availability to Autoinjector Epi-Pens on Planes: Peters led a provision in the bill which would direct the FAA to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding first aid and emergency medical kit equipment and training required for flight crewmembers, and in so doing to consider the feasibility of requiring adult and child epinephrine autoinjectors on airplanes. The FAA currently requires airplanes to carry epinephrine but not autoinjectors.    

Transitioning Away from Toxic Firefighting Foam: The bill includes language Peters fought for encouraging FAA to continue work to identify, develop, and test PFAS alternatives. The bill also includes $70 million for the PFAS Replacement Program for Airports that Peters helped pass into law as part of the FAA Reauthorization of 2024 earlier this year. Michigan airports and consumers in particular stand to benefit from an agency-wide effort to incentivize and fund the transition away from PFAS firefighting foam.  

Port Infrastructure Development Program: Peters helped secure robust funding for the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) which provides grants to improve port infrastructure on the coasts and along the Great Lakes, facilitating economic growth, improving safety, addressing climate change, and strengthening our supply chain efficiency. In five short years, the PIDP program has become a critical source of federal assistance to reconstruct docks, improve road and rail access, expand storage capacity and modernized cargo handling equipment. As of 2023, 10 Great Lakes ports have received more than $93 million for critical infrastructure investments.   

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