DOT Secretary Launches Infrastructure Tour
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg used an August 23 visit to the Port of Tampa, Fla., to kick off a four-day, six-state “Building a Better America Tour.” Buttigieg promoted the recently signed sweeping health, climate and tax law known as the Inflation Reduction Act, but he also used the tour to focus attention on major infrastructure projects. Buttigieg helped local officials celebrate a previously announced $12.6 million grant to build a new berth at the Port Redwing facility to add capacity and reduce emissions.
During his remarks, he also mentioned a grant awarded to Port Miami to expand rail capacity and cargo gate optimization.
Modernization projects connected to several other ports across the country also were among the 166 funded by the more than $2.2 billion announced earlier by the Biden administration from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program.
Buttigieg also had stops scheduled in Oklahoma, Nevada, Minnesota, Ohio and New Hampshire with other DOT officials headed to other states.
In the coming weeks, the Secretary and other senior USDOT officials will continue to visit additional sites that are receiving RAISE awards to highlight the ways that the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping invest in communities and get important infrastructure projects moving in communities large and small.
Additional background:
• 2022 RAISE grants are for planning and capital investments that support roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, or intermodal transportation
. • 50% of funding is designated for projects in rural areas, and 50% of the funding is designated for projects in urban areas.
• Nearly two-thirds of projects are located in areas of persistent poverty or historically disadvantaged communities.
• The largest grant award is $25 million. Per statute, no more than $341.25 million could be awarded to a single state in this round of funding.
• Among this year’s selected projects, 11 included a local hire provision.
• Several projects include workforce development aspects including four projects that have project labor agreements, eight projects that have registered apprenticeship programs and an additional eight projects with other workforce development provisions.
The RAISE program is one of several ways communities can secure funding for projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s competitive grant programs. Later this year, the Biden-Harris Administration will announce recipients of the first-ever National Infrastructure Project Assistance (MEGA) program, as well as the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program and the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program (RURAL).