Statistics on FHWA Formula Funds in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (Public Law 117-58, November 15, 2021), known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), provides $1.2 trillion in funding including $673.8 billion to transportation programs over five years.
The BIL authorizes $362.6 billion to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), $273.1 billion of that is for FHWA formula grant programs. Formula grants are grants that are distributed based on statutes such as congressional appropriation acts, and are also sometimes referred to as mandatory grants, non-discretionary grants, or non-competitive grants.
FHWA provides State departments of transportation with official calculations of funds available by program each year. The following estimates illustrate likely funds available for future expenditures through FHWA formula grants.
FHWA Formula Fund Calculations
Section 11101
of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 (Division A of the
BIL), titled Authorization of Appropriations, authorizes $273.1 billion from
the Highway Trust Fund over 5 years for the Federal-Aid Highway Program, and
specifies that funding is to be split among the following formula programs:
- The National Highway Performance Program under section 119 of title 23 U.S.C.
- The Surface Transportation Block Grant Program under section 133 of title 23 U.S.C.
- The Highway Safety Improvement Program under section 148 of title 23 U.S.C. which encompasses a variety of activities, including:
- Safety Related Activities under section 403(f) of title 23 U.S.C.; and
- Railway-Highway Crossing Program under section 130 of title 23 U.S.C.
- The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program under section 149 of title 23 U.S.C.
- The National Highway Freight Program under section 167 of title 23 U.S.C.
- The Carbon Reduction Program under section 175 of title 23 U.S.C.
- Subsection (c) of the PROTECT Program under section 176 of title 23 U.S.C., and
- Metropolitan Transportation Planning under section 134 of title 23 U.S.C.
Of
these eight FHWA formula programs, two are newly established under the BIL.
These include the Carbon Reduction Program (established under section 11403 of
the BIL), and Subsection (c) of the PROTECT Program (established under section
11405 of the BIL). The manner in which the overall Federal-Aid Highway Program
funding is distributed among these eight programs is detailed in section 11104
of the BIL. For these FHWA formula programs, the BIL either allocates specific
amounts to a program over five years, or distributes a specific percentage of
the overall Federal-Aid Highway Program funding to a program, after the
predetermined allocated amounts are allotted. The programs that are funded with
allocated amounts include:
- The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program is allocated $13.2 billion over five years,
- The National Highway Freight Program is allocated $7.15 billion over five years, and
- Metropolitan Planning is allocated $2.28 billion over five years
After removing the $22.63 billion in the above programs from the
$273.1 billion total, the following programs receive designated percentages of
the remaining amount (see the table below for the resulting actual dollar
amounts):
- The National Highway Performance Program receives 59.0771195921461 percent
- The Surface Transportation Block Grant Program receives 28.7402203421251 percent
- The Highway Safety Improvement Program receives 6.70605141316253 percent
- Section 11108 amends section 130(e) of title 23 U.S.C. to specify that the Railway-Highway Grade Crossing Program shall receive no less than $245 million per year over five fiscal years ($1.23 billion total). These funds are set aside before making the Highway Safety Improvement Program apportionment for a fiscal year.
- Section 24103 amends section 403 of title 23 U.S.C. to specify that, for Highway Safety Improvement Programs, $3.5 million of the total amount available for highway safety programs in each fiscal year ($17.5 million total) shall be available for a cooperative research and evaluation program to research and evaluate priority highway safety countermeasures. These funds are set aside before making the Highway Safety Improvement Program apportionment for a fiscal year.
- The Carbon Reduction Program receives 2.56266964565637 percent
- The PROTECT Formula program receives 2.91393900690991 percent
These
resulting funding amounts for the FHWA formula programs are presented in the
table below.
More information about the calculation and organization of the FHWA Formula Funds in the BIL can be found on the FHWA page on their BIL funding.
