Biden-Harris Administration announces funding for 162 community-led infrastructure projects as part of the Investing in America agenda
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg joined Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn and others in South Carolina to announce that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded more than $2.2 billion from the RAISE discretionary grant program to 162 different infrastructure projects across the country.
The funding includes a nearly $23 million grant to build a pedestrian bridge and a multi-modal transit hub to better connect neighborhoods and college campuses to downtown Orangeburg, S.C.
The RAISE grant program, expanded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supports communities of all sizes, with half of the FY2023 funding going to rural areas and the other half to urban areas. The grants are part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that is growing the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out — from rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, to driving nearly $500 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating good-paying jobs and building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.
"Using the funds in President Biden’s infrastructure law, we are helping communities in every state across the country realize their visions for new infrastructure projects,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This round of RAISE grants is helping create a new generation of good-paying jobs in rural and urban communities alike, with projects whose benefits will include improving safety, fighting climate change, advancing equity, strengthening our supply chain and more.”
This year’s awarded projects will help more people get where they need to be quickly, affordably and safely. From projects that will strengthen supply chains and reduce bottlenecks, to bridge replacements and road projects to make them safer and more efficient for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, this year’s awards will build and repair infrastructure that benefits Americans for future generations to come, while taking steps to reduce emissions from the transportation sector and support wealth creation and good-paying union jobs. Seventy percent of the grants are going to projects in regions defined as an Area of Persistent Poverty or a Historically Disadvantaged Community.
Like last year, demand for RAISE funding was higher than available funds. This year, DOT received $15 billion in requests for the $2.26 billion available.
Ohio projects were awarded to Cincinnati, Kent, Toledo and Youngstown. The full list of projects can be viewed at https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2023-06/RAISE%202023….
RAISE discretionary grants help project sponsors at the state and local levels, including municipalities, Tribal governments, counties and others complete critical freight and passenger transportation infrastructure projects that they may not have had the funding to carry out prior to passage of President Biden’s infrastructure law. The eligibility requirements of RAISE allow project sponsors to obtain funding for projects that are harder to support through other U.S. DOT grant programs.
The RAISE program is one of several ways communities can secure funding for projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s competitive grant programs. This week, the Federal Transit Administration announced early $1.7 billion in funding through the agency’s Low or No Emission Vehicle Program, which puts more zero-emission and low-emission buses on the road while supporting workforce training on new vehicle technologies.
Earlier this week, the Department also published the 2023 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant (MPDG) Program: a three-in-one grant opportunity for communities interested in funding made available through the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) discretionary grant program, the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program (Rural), and the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program.
For more information on the RAISE program, go to https://www.transportation.gov/RAISEgrants.