Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act Analysis (IIJA)

Executive Summary

The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) includes the largest increase in federal highway and public transportation investment in more than 50 years. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to repair and modernize every state’s transportation system and is the culmination of years of advocacy leadership by ARTBA’s members and D.C.-based professional staff.

The IIJA will facilitate important physical infrastructure improvements aimed at strengthening the safe and efficient movement of people and products. According to a September 2021 analysis by IHS Markit, the increased highway and transit investment levels will add nearly $500 billion to U.S. GDP by 2027.

At the core of the new law is a five-year reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program and $450 billion for highway, bridge, public transportation, and safety improvements—more than half of the IIJA’s total investments. The law includes significant and long-time ARTBA-and industry-championed policy improvements, including:

• streamlined project delivery and environmental approval advancements, such as the codification of the “One Federal Decision” executive order;
• increased investments in safety, research, and education programs; and
• expanded access to Private Activity Bonds for highway and intermodal projects.Rather than generating new highway user fee revenue to pay for its investment increases, the IIJA transfers $118 billion from the General Fund to support its surface transportation commitments over the next five years.

The IIJA also expands five-year investments in:

• railways: $66 billion
• water infrastructure: $55 billion
• airports: $25 billion
• multi-modal projects: $19 billion
• ports and marine highways: $17 billion

It also supports other non-transportation infrastructure priorities, such as broadband, energy, and environmental programs.

Congressional engagement on major bipartisan infrastructure legislation began in 2019, when the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee drafted, and unanimously approved, America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act (ATIA), which proposed major highway and bridge investment increases and featured important project delivery reforms.

ARTBA Chairman Steve McGough (HCSS) testified before the EPW Committee in June 2020 in support of ATIA and highlighted the role transportation infrastructure plays as an economic engine. ATIA did not receive consideration by the full Senate, but the work done by the EPW Committee served as the foundation of the IIJA’s surface transportation reauthorization.

ARTBA and its members have been dogged in the pursuit of significant surface transportation investment increases and weren’t knocked off course even in the fog of the COVID-19 pandemic. The association’s volunteer leaders, state contractor chapter affiliates and D.C.-based government affairs team participated in thousands of meetings on Capitol Hill, in district offices, and project site visits across the country. Such grassroots activism was an essential factor affecting the final legislative outcome.