Respond to discussion below?

The Freight transportation system is the backbone of the U.S economy because it connects businesses to markets throughout the world and affects every business and household in one way or the other. Changes in freight movement can ripple U.S society and affect everyone's daily lives. Therefore, Federal and state governments influence the transportation industry through legislation, infrastructure spending, safety regulations, and funding.

Historically, the mandate for federal involvement came from decades of debate regarding enunciated state and industry issues. However, the Federal government has taken widely differing roles in freight transportation over the years. The Transcontinental Railroad was built by the private sector in public-private joint venture with the Federal Government. The Interstate Highway System was built by the states in a public-public venture led by the Federal Government and to accomplish the deregulation of the commercial transportation industry, the Federal Government disengaged itself from the industry after years of direct economic oversight. Eventually, the Federal Government redefined its relationship with the states, devolving control over most transportation decision-making to state and local government (Milestone, 2022).

The first U.S policy toward freight transportation was the Interstate Commerce Act (1887). This act was passed in response to public demand that railroads operations be regulated. In addition, The Interstate Commerce Act addressed the issue with railroad monopolies by setting guidelines for how the railroads could do business.

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) was the turning point in history for transportation in the U.S. ISTEA took on a multimodal approach to transportation planning and funding, created programs focused on congestion relief and air quality improvement, mandated performance monitoring for highways and bridges as well as transit, and gave significant additional powers and responsibilities to metropolitan planning organization (Deakin, 2021). In addition, ISTEA changed the highway program and transportation community by linking of highway, marine, air and rail transportation as it gave state and local governments more flexibility in determining transportation solutions.

Today, the Department of Transportation focuses on wealth creation, power of community, interventions, and expanding access and opportunity to all communities while focusing on underserved, overburdened, and disadvantaged communities.

We also have the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that focuses on rehabilitating bridges in critical need of repair, reducing carbon emissions, increasing system resilience, removing barriers to connecting communities, and improving mobility and access to economic opportunity (DOT, 2023). To further assist we have the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force that help diagnose problems and surface solutions to help alleviate bottlenecks and supply constraints to minimize the impacts on workers, consumers, and businesses, and bolster a strong economic recovery.