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 2022 Inflation Reduction Act contains programs that aim to achieve climate goals through investment in clean energy manufacturing, as well as by providing funding to communities to help them prepare for and withstand the impacts of extreme weather.
Equity is a key focus of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in its distribution of new federal funds through the Tribal Climate Resilience program. Although the program predates the major investments from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, it has significantly grown in scale with funding from these two new laws. Recognizing the need to be intentional in the use of these funds, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is focusing on equity in several ways.
“There’s a very wide variation in the size and technical capacity of tribes,” said Jason Freihage, deputy assistant secretary for management for Indian Affairs. Because of this, some of the 574 federally recognized tribes are more prepared than others to produce strong applications for federal funding. Recognizing the differing needs and capacities among tribes, the bureau set aside a portion of the program’s funding specifically for first-time awardees.
This set-aside is intended for tribes that have less institutional capacity available to apply for funding, compared to tribes that have experience they can build on. “We really are trying to focus on equity with that set-aside,” said John Mosley, branch chief for the Tribal Climate Resilience program. “Those tribes that may not be as competitive … this gets their foot in the door.” With this program, smaller tribes can be prioritized for first-time awards even if their applications would otherwise be less competitive than applications from communities with more resources. This helps these smaller tribes increase their capacity, positioning them to compete more effectively for other funding in the future. “Funding is intended to help them build that capacity and get plans in place so that they could take advantage [of other funding in the future],” Mosley said.
Another equity-focused initiative of the Tribal Climate Resilience Program is to specifically set aside funding for tribes to hire staff and build capacity for managing threats from climate change. The funds are allocated for “relocation, managed retreat or protect-in-place,” or RMP. This tranche of funding is for tribes to hire an RMP coordinator to help them consider the best options for their community, again focusing on tribes that would not have that capacity using their existing resources.
For tribes that have received funding from the RMP coordinator set-aside, the bureau has created a cohort and training series for funding recipients to ensure they are supported throughout the life cycle of the award. This cohort provides a forum for tribes to learn from each other—sharing their challenges and success stories. The training provided to the cohort is based on the needs and interests that members identify as their priorities. “It’s an iterative kind of training where we listen and hear what they’re interested in,” Mosley said. The training also provides an opportunity for the bureau to connect cohort members with other federal agencies that may have programs relevant to the communities’ needs.
