COVID Relief Bill Would Provide Limited Direct Funding for Construction

On February 10, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved its portion of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill. The legislation would provide $30 billion to public transit programs, $8 billion to airports and $1.5 billion to Amtrak. The vast majority of those funds would go to maintaining existing operations. However, the Federal Transit Administration’s capital investment grants programs would receive $1.25 billion ($1 billion for New Starts and Core Capacity program and 250 million for Small Starts program) and $608 million would be allocated to airport development projects. While some have pointed to the $350 billion allotted for state and local governments in the president’s COVID-relief bill as a possible way to help fund new construction investment projects, how exactly that funding is spent appears likely to be left to state and local governments to decide. At a minimum, that funding could help prevent public owners from delaying or canceling construction projects.