T4America Blog

Though the program’s future is uncertain, $500 million in TIGER grants are now available

Though the future of the program could be in doubt, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced yesterday that $500 million is now available for the best local projects in the next round of the TIGER competitive grant program.

Sec. Foxx making the TIGER announcement at the NACO conference. Photo from the USDOT Fast Lane blog.

Projects hoping to win TIGER funds compete against each other and are selected on their merits to ensure that each dollar is spent in the most effective way possible. The program has funded an incredible multimodal station in Normal, Illinois, an overhaul of the downtown street network in Dubuque, IA that helped expand the tax base by $77 million and an improvement to the West Memphis port to boost cargo capacity by 2,000 percent, among hundreds of others.

It’s one of the few ways that local communities of almost any size can directly receive federal dollars for their priority transportation project, spurring innovation, leveraging federal funding by matching it with greater local dollars and targeting projects that provide a high return on investment.

The program is open and available, with grant applications due on April 29th.

We’ve got a special members-only webinar coming up on March 3rd with our TIGER grant expert Beth Osborne, T4A’s Senior Policy Advisor. T4America members can find a link to register below.

While this eighth round of TIGER is open for business now, will there be a ninth? Don’t forget that congressional appropriators will soon be deciding TIGER’s future, along with that of other important transportation programs. Do you represent a city, county, metro planning organization, or other group? We’re looking for these sorts of groups to sign a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of these programs.