Introduction

On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law. The IIJA supports $1.2 trillion in programming, including $550B in new spending. The act makes some of the largest investments in transportation, water, bridges, and rail in American history, and includes new investments in climate resiliency and low-emission technology to ensure we can adapt to the impacts of climate change. Combined with the historic funds made available through the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), these legacy-forming measures have the potential to reshape the physical landscape of communities and remake the American economy.

Despite historic federal action, the degree to which the IIJA’s potential is achieved will rest upon the actions of local leaders — and how effectively cities and communities capitalize on these funds. Local leaders must marshal funds, prioritize projects, and make clear the principles that guide their efforts. 

The distribution of the American Rescue Plan required local governments to organize and prepare for federal recovery dollars. Implementing the IIJA will build on these partnerships across sectors and jurisdictions to move from COVID-19 relief to an economy-wide recovery and modernization. 

It is our hope that this guide can bolster the efforts of local leaders to organize public, private, and civic actors in their jurisdictions to focus on big picture investments. The guide aims to do this by identifying some of the IIJA’s most transformative programs (cumulatively more than $350B) including what they do, when cities can apply for or access the funds, and the agencies, authorities, and offices responsible for administering them. In many cases, the most important role that mayors can play is serving as a convener — bringing the right people together in a room to accomplish bigger, bolder things.

This guide is separated into two main sections: reauthorized and newly established programs. Both sections feature programs to which key players within cities and metros either have direct access or can work with their state partners to access. The section featuring reauthorized programs highlights programs and funding streams that have been reauthorized or expanded and should be distributed from federal agencies in the near term. The section featuring newly-established programs focuses on the programs that were created within the IIJA so that city leadership can establish priorities, line up funds, and organize institutions so they are ready to move once these programs are established over the next 6 to 8 months. As the IIJA’s newly-established programs are set up, rules are made, and programs are staffed early in 2022, we will release a second, more comprehensive version of this guide similar to our American Rescue Plan Federal Investment Guide.

Executive Summary 

This guide was produced to support local action that is ambitious enough to meet the scale of IIJA. It is intended to advance the conversation to focus on actionable insights for local leaders.