Now that the US has enacted the US $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act, the Federal government faces the challenges of distributing funds to the states and cities.
The US $1.2 trillion might seem such a huge windfall, but is it enough to cover all the country’s infrastructure needs and ensure fair and equitable funding to cities, towns, and communities?
Vox unpacks how funding will be distributed to the states and how state officials oversee infrastructure projects.
The article says that the funding is not enough to cover the entire country’s infrastructure needs. State officials will have a tough decision on what projects to prioritize, such as what roads will get repaired, lead pipes get replaced, what bridge to restore.
In the past, infrastructure investments were biased towards low-income and colored communities, leaving them with poor and inadequate infrastructure.
How the money will be allocated
According to the article:
“First, the money laid out in the legislation will be allocated to specific federal agencies that work on different policy areas, giving them the authority to distribute this money.
The Department of Transportation has jurisdiction over the bulk of the funds and will oversee money for highways, public transit, and rail. The Environmental Protection Agency will oversee funding for drinking water and wastewater projects, including replacing lead pipes. The Department of Commerce will oversee funding for broadband deployment. The Department of Energy will oversee funding for the electric grid and clean energy investments. And the Department of Interior will oversee water management and natural disaster resilience”.
These agencies will then send the money to the state governments through grants and loans over the next five years. The allocation of funding depends on the formulas designed by the federal government based on individual state needs and the conditions of their existing infrastructure.
Based on this formula, the federal government would send the bulk of the money to places with many people and a lot of need. States with the most population like California, New York, and Texas will have the lion’s share of the new federal funding.
To fund infrastructure projects for towns and cities will have to apply for state funding and loan, then the states will decide what project will get budget based on need.
For towns and cities to get funding for their infrastructure projects, they must apply for state funding and loans. There is variability in how states decide what communities will get and won’t get the money.
While the infrastructure bill is a massive investment, it won’t go far enough to cover all of the country’s infrastructure needs.
States will have to make some tradeoffs and challenging decisions where the limited investments will go. For instance, the infrastructure bill allocated $15 billion to remove all lead pipes, but the actual estimate to fix all the country’s lead pipes is $60 billion. The article says that needs like broadband access and public transit repairs also face the same funding shortage.
The article highlights that funding has not always been equitably distributed and has deprived colored and poor communities of infrastructure investments while favoring white communities. It cites the 2021 review of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which finds that states were less likely to allocate this money to more diverse communities.
It also mentions the 1956 law that helped establish the interstate highway system where the construction of the highway has harmed many Black Americans and displaced their homes.
Initiatives like the #Justice40 goal by the present administration aims to avoid repeating past infrastructure investment errors.
According to the White House press release, the #Justice40 guidance “is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that Federal agencies work with states, Tribes, and local communities to make good on President Biden’s promise to deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from Federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities.”
The initiative could become a model for future state and federal funding to allocate substantial infrastructure investments to disadvantaged groups – low socio-economic and colored communities and ensure that the US implements the infrastructure bill fairly and equitably to all communities.
Leave a Reply