Over the last few years, several pieces of major legislation—such as the American Rescue Plan Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), and the CHIPS and Science Act—have made historic amounts of federal funds available for investments in communities across the country.
Governments at all levels, from small municipal governments to large federal agencies, have a role to play in ensuring that funding from these investments reaches individuals and communities in a timely and equitable manner. Many government organizations have adopted creative strategies to implement these major federal investments—building on existing frameworks or creating new tools or processes to ensure that programs and funding created by these bills achieve the intended public benefit.
These case studies describe examples of how federal, state and local government agencies are approaching implementation of these major federal investments, with a focus on ensuring the funding is distributed equitably. The examples in these case studies offer promising practices that government leaders—no matter their level—can adopt or use as inspiration for contributing to the equitable implementation of recent major federal investments.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (officially known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) provides significant funding to help communities update existing or build new infrastructure of many different kinds—including transportation, broadband, and water infrastructure. The bill includes both formula funding that is distributed to state and local governments according to a set formula, as well as competitive grant programs for which communities must apply.
To be best able to take advantage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other federal funding, the Maine state government has prioritized coordination between state agencies and alignment with the state’s existing strategic plans.
The governor issued an executive order that established the state’s Infrastructure Implementation Committee, which calls on state agencies to coordinate their approach to infrastructure funding and programs. The committee also serves as a single focus for public interaction with Maine’s work related to the infrastructure law. The committee began in 2022 with seven state agencies but has since expanded to include additional agencies. “Through the Committee, cross-agency work is made much easier by allowing for a greater level of coordination than was previously possible,” said Daniel Matz, a policy analyst in the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
Coordination between agencies has enabled Maine to deploy its resources more effectively to take advantage of the funds available through BIL. Because Maine is one of the smallest states by population, each individual government agency is relatively small and may not have staff that can fully focus on pursuing federal funding. However, by teaming up, agencies are able to combine their knowledge of the state’s needs and prepare strong applications.
Matz shared the example of the state’s application for a federal Department of Transportation program to support culvert removal for fish passage. “Before the Committee was established, the state might have sent in multiple applications from different agencies for a program like this one,” he said. However, with this structure for coordination put in place, Maine’s Department of Transportation and Department of Marine Resources worked together to submit a joint application that was stronger than what either department would have been able to produce individually. This enabled Maine to secure a larger-than-expected grant, much of which went directly to the state’s tribal communities.
In addition to coordination between agencies, Maine is closely aligning with the state’s existing strategies for equitable development in its pursuit of federal funding. For example, Maine is the oldest and most rural state, so the state has worked to develop strategies to ensure that funding flows statewide to achieve geographic equity, rather than going only to communities with the largest populations. Both the state’s ten-year economic strategy and climate action plan—which were developed with extensive stakeholder outreach—are integral to how Maine officials are approaching infrastructure law and other federal funding. Maine’s infrastructure website notes which of the state’s strategic plans each of the law’s priority areas supports, so that everyone can see how these new projects connect to existing strategies.
Having these strategies, which the state developed with equity in mind, gives the state a framework for approaching new federal funding. “Maine has a number of robust economic and workforce development plans that position us well to direct federal funding into those priorities that have already been set,” said Scott Kleiman, policy director for workforce and the economy in the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
The Connecticut infrastructure implementation team focuses on open communication and bolstering the capacity of state and local governments to support their pursuit of funding opportunities from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. “We do a lot of outreach—between mayors and first selectmen (the chief executive in a local government system common in New England), local and state elected officials, the governor’s office—trying to mix all that together along with our state agencies, just to make sure there aren’t any silos and that everyone is working on the same page,” said Mark Boughton, Connecticut’s infrastructure implementation coordinator.
The team implementing the infrastructure law uses several strategies to ensure that officials across the state, at all levels of government, are up to date on funding opportunities and projects in progress. For example, the team distributes a monthly infrastructure journal, listing current state projects and recent developments at the federal level, to officials across the state so they have all the most recent information in one place. Boughton also regularly meets one-on-one with leaders at other state agencies to discuss opportunities relevant to their work.
The team also hosts quarterly webinars for local officials to share more in-depth information about funding opportunities and help build local capacity. Boughton noted they have already seen clear impacts from the webinars: “Every single one of our Safe Streets for All grantees this year attended our webinar.”
In addition to keeping state and local officials informed about funding opportunities and the progress of projects, the team also serves as a source of additional capacity for local governments and state agencies that would not be able to take advantage of funding opportunities without assistance. “If someone says that they can’t apply, that there’s a bandwidth issue, that’s when we can spring into action,” said Stephen Nocera, deputy program advisor for infrastructure.
The team emphasizes that it is available for any assistance state or local colleagues might need: “You want me to go to Washington and talk to somebody, I’ll do it; you want me to help scan documents because your staff is too busy with implementation, we can do that for you,” Boughton said. This helps ensure equity by providing assistance to communities that otherwise might not have the capacity to produce strong applications, especially for communities that are smaller or have fewer municipal resources available to track the numerous opportunities for federal funding that are available.
The state team implementing the infrastructure law is committed to open communication and providing assistance, creating trust among state and local officials. “They’re starting to value it and starting to reach out to us [proactively],” Nocera said.
