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Protecting Infrastructure Investments for Rural America Act
To ensure the rural surface transportation grant program is accessible to rural areas, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill would expand the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program to make it more accessible to smaller rural communities. It would change the definition of "rural area" to include communities with populations of 30,000 or less and create a new category of "small community" for areas outside urbanized zones with 5,000 or fewer residents. The bill would increase the federal funding share for small community projects to up to 90 percent and require at least 5 percent of annual program funds be dedicated to small community projects. It would also expand eligible project types to include infrastructure that supports economic development and quality of life improvements in rural areas.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Finstad, Brad [R-MN-1] (R-MN)
8 cosponsors
Actions (3)
- Jan 17, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. · house
- Jan 16, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. · house
- Jan 16, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
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Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 16, 2025
Mr. Finstad (for himself, Mr. Golden of Maine, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Mann, Mrs. Fischbach, Mr. Van Orden, and Mr. Moolenaar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To ensure the rural surface transportation grant program is accessible to rural areas, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Infrastructure Investments for Rural America Act”.
SEC. 2. RURAL SURFACE TRANSPORTATION GRANT PROGRAM.
Section 173 of title 23, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) in paragraph (2) by striking “over 200,000” and inserting “30,000 or less”; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
“(3) Small community.—The term ‘small community’ means an area that is outside an urbanized area and that has a population of 5,000 or less.”;
(2) in subsection (b)(2)—
(A) in subparagraph (B) by striking “and” at the end;
(B) in subparagraph (C) by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
“(D) to generate economic growth and development in rural areas to improve the quality of life for citizens in rural areas and small communities.”;
(3) in subsection (e)(1)—
(A) in subparagraph (F) by striking “or” at the end;
(B) in subparagraph (G) by striking the period at the end and inserting “; or”; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
“(H) a highway, road, bridge, or tunnel project that would benefit the economic development or quality of life for citizens of the community in which the project takes place.”;
(4) by striking subsection (i);
(5) by redesignating subsections (j), (k), (l), (m), (n), and (o) as subsections (i), (j), (k), (l), (m), and (n), respectively;
(6) in subsection (i) (as so redesignated)—
(A) in paragraph (1) by striking “paragraph (2)” and inserting “paragraphs (2) or (3)”;
(B) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph
(4); and
(C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
“(3) Federal share for projects in small communities.—The Federal share of the cost of a project carried out in a small community with a grant under the program may not exceed 90 percent.”;
(7) in subsection (j) (as so redesignated) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the following:
“(1) Projects in small communities.—The Secretary shall use not less than 5 percent of the amounts made available for the program for each fiscal year to provide grants for eligible projects in a small community.”; and
(8) in subsection (l) (as so redesignated) by striking “subsection (l)(1)” and inserting “subsection (k)(1)”. <all>
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