A $2 billion windfall to help support long-overdue infrastructure projects awaits state and local governments throughout the country. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has once again made unspent earmarks available and today issued new guidelines and project lists regarding the process necessary for the state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to begin accessing those funds.
Image by Lars Plougmann licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Earmarks historically have been used to designate funding for certain projects, often at the expense of transparency and accountability. However, the Obama Administration has since taken steps to move away from the use of earmarks.
In 2012, USDOT distributed more than $470 million in unspent earmarks available to states to be repurposed. This year’s $2 billion comes from previously earmarked funds amassed from original designations that were more than 10 years old with less than 10 percent of the funds obligated or if the project has been closed. States with qualifying leftover funds can, through the end of FY 2016, repurpose these funds to other projects within 50 miles of the location for which they were originally intended. Once a state makes known its plans for repurposing those funds, the funds will be made immediately available for use through the respective state DOT. The public entity will then have until the end of FY 2019 to obligate the funds.
The guidelines were issued today by the Federal Highway Administration. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has urged participating entities to focus on projects that “reconnect their communities and increase access to jobs, education and basic services.”
Funds that are repurposed for other projects will provide transportation infrastructure-related contracting opportunities for private-sector firms large and small. Unused funding from these individual projects ranges from thousands to millions of dollars.