Senators urged Chairman Collins and Ranking Member Reed to reject President Trump’s proposal to eliminate TIGER funding from budget
“We have all seen firsthand the difference TIGER can make in our states,” the letter stated.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) joined Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and 38 of their Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Chairman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Jack Reed, urging them to include robust funding for the National Infrastructure Investments program, also known as TIGER, in Fiscal Year 2018. They noted the difference TIGER has made in their states, and its success providing flexibility for state and local agencies to work with partners to tackle complex transportation and economic development challenges in their communities. Since 2009, the TIGER program has helped facilitate 421 multimodal projects in every state in the nation, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.
“I support the TIGER program because it’s been utilized to improve important infrastructure investments like the Washoe County Bus Rapid Transit, recreation improvements by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and Green Fleet procurement for the RTC of Southern Nevada,” said Cortez Masto. “These kinds of projects wouldn’t be possible in a world where the Administration’s budget stymies our federal support for transporation.”
“TIGER is a unique, cost-effective, and competitive program that uses outcome oriented selection criteria and leverages private, state, and local investment to solve complex multimodal transportation and economic development challenges…We have all seen firsthand the difference TIGER can make in our states,” the members wrote in the letter.
In addition to Senators Cortez Masto, Murray, Durbin, and Schatz, the letter was also signed by Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Edward Markey (D-MA), Jeffrey Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Gary Peters (D-MI), James Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The full text of the letter can be found below:
The Honorable Susan M. Collins
Chairman
Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and
Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Dirksen 184
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Jack Reed
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and
Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Hart 125
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Chairman Collins and Ranking Member Reed:
As the Subcommittee begins its consideration of the Fiscal Year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we write in support of the National Infrastructure Investments program (TIGER) and urge the inclusion of robust funding for this effective program. We have long supported investments that tackle the complex multimodal transportation needs of our communities through the TIGER program, and we are disappointed that the program was eliminated in the Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Blueprint.
Since its creation in 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded $5.1 billion to 421 innovative, multimodal projects in every state in the nation, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. Of these, more than 140 projects supported rural and tribal communities. As a result, critical investments have been made in road, rail, transit, and port projects of regional and national significance.
Each year the demand for TIGER far exceeds the amount of funding available. In 2016, DOT received 585 applications from all 50 states requesting $9.3 billion in funding for the eighth round of the program. This amounted to almost 20 times more than the $500 million included in the Fiscal Year 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 114-113). Over the life of the program, DOT has received more than 7,300 applications for more than $165 billion in transportation projects throughout the country, which clearly demonstrates the need for continued investment in the TIGER program.
TIGER is a unique, cost-effective, and competitive program that uses outcome oriented selection criteria and leverages private, state, and local investment to solve complex multimodal transportation and economic development challenges. For every federal dollar invested, an average of two non-federal dollars goes into a TIGER project. In 2016, the $500 million included in the Fiscal Year 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act supported $1.74 billion in overall transportation investments.
This program serves as an important complement to DOT’s formula-based programs, providing flexibility for state and local agencies to work with partners to achieve creative transportation solutions. We have all seen firsthand the difference TIGER can make in our states.
Thank you for your consideration of this critical program, which puts people to work, boosts regional economies, and improves our nation’s infrastructure.
Sincerely,
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