Congress Hears Complaints About Discretionary Grants Process

The Department of Transportation’s discretionary grant program has been in every way historic: some $661 billion in road, bridge, airport, port, and rail projects have been funded as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.

“The investment level and volume of new competitive initiatives far exceeds previous transportation bills,” Washington Democrat Representative Rick Larsen remarked during a recent hearing.

That hearing, conducted by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, was tasked with looking at how well, or not so well, discretionary grant programs sponsored by the Department of Transportation have fared.

In looking at the program, Larsen noted that more than 1,000 local safety projects have thus far received funding, not to mention nearly 240 rail projects, and the building and developing of 69 passenger rail corridors.

But other members of the committee, as well as local officials offering testimony, have claimed that the grant process has often proven complicated and lengthy.

Alan Winders, appearing for the National Association of Counties, noted that Audrain County in Missouri has repeatedly failed to secure funding through the Transportation Department’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program for a local highway project.

According to a released issued by the committee, Audrain County has been “unsuccessful in its grant application for six years,” subject to “inconsistent determinations and changing grant criteria.”

Contending that grant award delays have contributed to hundreds of millions of dollars in project cost overruns, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue remarked: “This is not an efficient, effective way to deliver infrastructure,” while adding that some local stakeholders in the Sunshine State have simply decided not to pursue federal funds because of those delays.

Republican Sam Graves, chairman of the committee, noted that one recipient of a Safe Streets and Roads for All grant has not only been forced to comply with 75 federal laws and regulations, but must also “certify compliance with 12 executive orders.”

“These additional criteria may exclude otherwise qualified projects from receiving federal funding for worthwhile infrastructure improvements,” added Graves.

The committee hearings come two months after the Government Accounting Office, in a report, took the Transportation Department to task for, among other things, not fully revealing why some projects were chosen for grant funding and other weren’t.

​By Garry Boulard

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