At least $274B of infrastructure package would go toward transportation,

Infrastructure bill may give Buttigieg final say over $105B

WASHINGTON — At least $274 billion of the bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill’s $550 billion in new spending would go toward transportation — a walloping one-time infusion of dollars in the nation’s roads, bridges, highways, ports, airports, rail and transit.

The measure also would give Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg the final say over about $105 billion of that $274 billion, according to one transportation analyst.

The 2,702-page bill, the product of months of negotiations between a group that included 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats, would impact vast swaths of the federal government, authorizing or appropriating dollars for programs in the Interior and Energy departments and the EPA, among others.

But a tally by Jeff Davis of the Eno Center for Transportation, an independent charitable foundation, shows the Department of Transportation would be the big winner. Not only would it receive the bulk of new spending, Mr. Davis found, but at least $105 billion would go toward DOT competitive grant programs over which Mr. Buttigieg is not the only arbiter for awardees but is the final one.

In an analysis of the infrastructure bill posted on Twitter, Mr. Davis said while each program has rules in law that must be obeyed when selecting winning grant recipients, the sum is “way more money than any other” Transportation secretary has been given for discretionary grants.

Mr. Buttigieg’s office did not respond immediately for comment. The secretary has been a major cheerleader for the Biden administration’s legislative priority.

Of the various modes of transportation, rail would receive an extraordinary amount: $66 billion, with Amtrak receiving $58 billion split between Northeast Corridor grants, federal-state partnerships for intercity rail and the railroad’s national network. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Amtrak received about $2 billion in federal subsidies per year.

The appropriations title of the bill, which Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., likened to a one-time supplemental spending bill, would give $6 billion to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, divvied out at $1.2 billion a year.

The spending title would provide $3.2 billion a year to Amtrak’s national network over five years for a total of $16 billion.

And intercity passenger rail would receive $36 billion, divided into $7.2 billion a year per five years, with no more than $24 billion of the total amount going to Northeast Corridor projects.

Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, which speaks on behalf of more than 40 million people, said the amounts allocated for Amtrak were “transformational.”

He said while he was disappointed the bill did not create a passenger rail trust fund that could provide dedicated-dollars toward the passenger rail company, he was heartened by the policy language in the bill.

The bill, Mr. Mathews said, shifted the focus from making Amtrak a profitmaking entity into one that emphasized that it was a taxpayer-supported service. The bill’s philosophy suggests, “we want to see you doing a good job with the money we give you, but we’re not trying to make you have a profit,” he said.

Transit, one of the most contentious transportationrelated issues among Senate negotiators, would receive $39 billion, including a $19 billion bump in contract authority and $10.25 billion in new funding for transit infrastructure grants. The bill would provide $8 billion for Capital Investment Grants, which go toward capital investments in heavy rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars and bus rapid transit. Another $1.75 billion would be for accessibility at stations for the elderly and people with disabilities.