White House: Nearly $60B from infrastructure law sent to roads and bridges

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced it will invest nearly $60 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law towards roads, bridges, tunnels, carbon emission reduction and safety improvements in all 50 states.

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will release more than $59.9 billion in funding from the $1.2 trillion bill that the president signed into law nearly a year ago.

The law provided an increase of $15.4 billion towards infrastructure funding compared to funding in fiscal 2021.

“This is more than a $15 billion increase from the year before the bipartisan infrastructure law and what that ultimately adds up to is a lot more good projects that improve everyday life,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters on Tuesday.

“Better roads and bridges mean that people are safer on the roads, people can save money on car repairs, and that we can all save time that is too often wasted,” he added.

Funding towards carbon reduction program, promoting resilient operations for cost-saving transportation, and a national electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure program is all new funding from the law.

Meanwhile, bridge program funding was increased by 391 percent over fiscal 2021 and Appalachian development highway system program funding was increased by 146 percent.

Buttigieg said that new investments can’t be “our grandparents’ idea of how to build infrastructure,” adding that funding will go to “reduce carbon emissions, to build a nationwide network of EV chargers along our highways, and to make our transportation systems more resilient to the extreme weather that climate change is hitting Americans all across the country.”

The more than $59.9 billion is appropriated to each state, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. States that will receive the most include Texas, which will receive nearly $5.5 billion; New York, which will receive more than $2.7 billion; and California, which will receive more than $5.6 billion.

The announcement comes ahead of Buttigieg’s trip to Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday to tour local infrastructure and highlight infrastructure law investments with House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.).