How the White House Influences Transportation Grantmaking – Smart Cities Dive
By Dan Zukowski
The RAISE grant program is the third iteration of national infrastructure investments that fund road, rail, transit and port projects of significant local or regional impact. Previous programs were known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery discretionary grants. Through these programs, more than 12,000 applicants have vied for nearly $14.3 billion in 15 rounds of funding authorized by Congress. These programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Our overall goal for this report was to really understand how federal competitive spending has changed over time,” said Yonah Freemark, principal research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute and an author of the report. “This allowed us to see how different presidential administrations have treated their choices in this competitive process.”
