$1.5 billion in federal infrastructure grants are now available. Here’s what you need to know.
The application process is now open for $1.5 billion in federal grant funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It’s for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Grant Program and the notice of funding details the Biden administration's thinking, approach and priorities for infrastructure projects. Here’s what you need to know.
What is the RAISE Grant program?
The RAISE program is the latest iteration of the competitive grant program previously known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) under the Trump administration. The program started with President Obama as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants. Originally intended as a Great Recession-era recovery program, the grants were so popular that Congress continued to authorize funding.
Since 2009, the program has awarded more than $3.8 billion in federal funding to 345 projects to support rural and tribal communities across the nation, leveraging an estimated $6.8 billion in non-RAISE/BUILD/TIGER funding.
Eligible projects include: roads and bridges, public transit, rail, ports, preventing stormwater runoff, the new category of inter-modal (i.e. walking/cycling paths), and the ever-ambiguous “any other surface transportation infrastructure project that the Secretary considers to be necessary to advance the goals of the program.”
Here’s a quick look at the numbers:
$1.5 billion allocated each year from fiscal 2022 through 2026.
Each year’s allocation must be divided evenly between urban and rural awardees.
At least $15 million must be used for projects in areas with persistent poverty or that qualify as historically disadvantaged communities.
At least $75 million must be awarded as planning grants for RAISE-eligible projects.
The federal grant will cover up to 80% of a project’s cost.
The total minimum project cost
For urban areas is $6.25 million with no cap
For rural areas is $1 million with a $25 million cap
Unused grant funds from any fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30 for the feds) will still be available to award for up to four years afterward. Awardees have even longer to spend their money. For example, this year’s $1.5 billion has to be spent by Sept. 30, 2031.
Big picture: equity and environment are key. The program and application guide hammers home the message that projects driven by environmental justice, racial equity and sustainability will be looked upon with favor. (I’ll go into more details below.) In fact, the DOT even created a mapping tool to make it easier to identify disadvantaged and high-poverty communities so that governments can target their proposals to serve these areas.
For more IIJA reading, brew a cuppa and sit down to the 465-page guidebook the White House released Monday. Or just read Will Lucia’s story in Route Fifty.
News from the field
The American Rescue Plan is certainly a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but it is not a silver bullet. The nonprofit Truth In Accounting’s recent “State of the Cities” report reminds us of this. It tallies all government debt and assets and ranks the country’s 75 largest cities. The bottom five: New York City, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Portland are all facing pension problems and slowing revenues. ARP money can’t be used to pay off debt although it can be used for revenue replacement.
I’ll be discussing this and more this Thursday at 12:30 ET as a guest on TIA’s “Ask the Experts” webinar series. I hope you’ll tune in!
Speaking of government sustainability, did you miss my rant on government hiring and retention during the CARES Act webinar earlier this week? No worries! You can watch the full recording here (program starts around the three-minute mark) and also catch Nick Kittle’s rant about how much governments spent on lawyers.
See also:
MissionSquare Research Institute’s new issue brief Benefits of State and Local Government Employees
Themes and project areas that could give governments the edge in RAISE applications
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