Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act

"FAST Act" redirects here. For California's fast food labor law, see California FAST Recovery Act.

The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act or the FAST Act is a funding and authorization bill to govern United States federal surface transportation spending. It was passed by Congress on December 3, 2015, and President Barack Obama signed it on the following day.^[1][2] The vote was 359–65 in the House of Representatives and 83–16 in the United States Senate.^[1][3]

Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act

Long title	An act to authorize funds for Federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and for other purposes
Acronyms (colloquial)	FAST Act
Enacted by	the 114th United States Congress
Effective	December 4, 2015
Citations
Public law	Pub. L. 114–94 (text) (PDF)
Statutes at Large	129 Stat. 1312
Codification
Acts amended	Securities Act of 1933
Titles amended	23 U.S.C.: Highways
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as "Hire More Heroes Act of 2015" (22) by Rodney Davis (R–IL) on January 6, 2015 Passed the House on January 6, 2015 (unanimous consent, 412-0) Passed the Senate on July 30, 2015 (65-34) Reported by the joint conference committee on December 3, 2015; agreed to by the House on December 3, 2015 (359-65) and by the Senate on December 3, 2015 (83-16) Signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 4, 2015

History

The bill was introduced to the House by Rodney Davis (R‑IL) as the "Hire More Heroes Act of 2015" on January 6, 2015. The $305 billion, five-year bill is funded without increasing transportation user fees.^[4] (The federal gas tax was last raised in 1993.^[5]) Instead, funds were generated through changes to passport rules, Federal Reserve Bank dividends, and privatized tax collection.^[1]

In Section 6021, Congress asked the Transportation Research Board (TRB) to conduct a study of the actions needed to upgrade and restore the Interstate Highway System to fulfill its role as a crucial national asset, serving the needs of people, cities and towns, businesses, and the military while remaining the safest highway network in the country. The subsequent 2019 report, "Renewing the National Commitment to the Interstate Highway System: A Foundation for the Future," recommended actions Congress could take.^[6]

Transportation provisions

The Act requires a reanalysis of the costs and benefits of electronically controlled pneumatic brakes.^{[citation needed]}

The Act creates the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council to speed up permitting of key infrastructure projects, particularly in transportation.^{[citation needed]}

Unrelated provisions

• This law authorizes the Export–Import Bank of the United States through 2019.^[2]
• New crop insurance funding is approved.^[7]
• Emigrant Savings Bank would have been exempted from certain provisions of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.^[8] This was not included in the final bill that was passed into law.^[9]
• The Act also includes several revisions to federal securities law, including Section 76001 of the Act. This provision creates a new Section 4(a)(7) of the Securities Act of 1933, a new exemption from registration under that act intended to facilitate secondary trading of private company securities among accredited investors. By doing so, Congress and the President hoped to support smaller, nonpublic companies with their capital raising efforts by providing more liquidity for their securities, with reduced regulatory burdens.^[10][11]

FAST-41

Title 41 of the FAST Act (FAST-41) created the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) to streamline the federal review and approval process for federal infrastructure projects.^[12]

In April 2025, the Second Trump administration granted the FAST-41 Transparency Project status to ten mineral projects, allowing for expedited permitting to support U.S. critical minerals production.^[13][14] The progress of these projects is publicly available.^[15]

The Biden administration had previously fast-tracked the first mineral project under FAST-41, a zinc-manganese development.^[13][16]