HR 502 — Protecting Infrastructure Investments for Rural America Act

Summary

Changes the definition of "rural area" in the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program from communities over 200,000 to communities of 30,000 or less population.
Adds a new definition of "small community" as areas outside urbanized areas with populations of 5,000 or less.
Adds economic growth, development, and quality of life improvements to the program's stated purposes for rural areas.
Expands eligible projects to include highway, road, bridge, or tunnel projects that benefit economic development or quality of life in the community.
Increases the maximum federal share of project costs in small communities to 90 percent.
Requires that at least 5 percent of annual program funds be allocated for projects in small communities.

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]

8 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Brad Finstad’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

Employer not reported $20,016
MR PAVING $14,200
STARKEY HEARING TECHNOLOGIES $13,200
BURWELL ENTERPRISES $13,200
CHRISTENSEN FARMS $12,200

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Brad Finstad → · Outside spending →

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)

Introduced in House · Jan 16, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

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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