Senate Committee Votes to Save, Increase TIGER Grants

According to a report in The Hiil, a Senate panel has rejected President Trump’s effort to eliminate Obama-era transportation grants, instead opting to provide a funding boost for the program.

By voice vote, the Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, housing and urban development approved a fiscal 2018 spending bill that includes $550 million for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program.

The program was set up by the Obama administration’s 2009 economic stimulus package to provide an extra injection of cash for surface transportation projects but was never authorized by Congress. The grants are a popular funding tool among cities and states because of their wide range of eligibility.

Trump proposed killing the $500 million-a-year program in his budget request, which a House panel followed through with in its own spending bill.

But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the Senate subcommittee, said it was important to increase funding for the grant program “given the poor condition of our nation’s infrastructure.”

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