Congress passed three major spending bills related to military and VA construction, transportation and jobs — appropriations that provide over $137 billion for construction and maintenance. The bills passed the House before Christmas and the Senate is expected to follow suit in January.
Military Construction and Family Housing
Active components: $11.8 billion for barracks, child care centers, installation chapels and mission-critical operational facilities, including accelerating the Army’s program to modernize troops’ housing facilities for trainees. $2.2 billion to bring all trainee barracks up to standards by 2017.
- Guard and Reserve: $1.6 billion for construction of readiness centers and operational facilities.
- Military and Family Housing: $2.59 billion
- Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC): $8 billion for environmental cleanup related to final rounds of base closures.
- Overseas contingency operations: $1.4 billion for military construction supporting operations and troops in Afghanistan.
Department of Veteran Affairs
VA construction and maintenance programs: $2.1 billion for construction and renovation of VA facilities.
- Major construction: $1.2 billion for facilities including hospitals and clinics.
- Minor construction: $703 billion for renovation and minor construction.
- State extended-care facilities: $100 million in state grants for construction and renovation of extended-care facilities for veterans.
Transportation and HUD Appropriation
$63.38 billion aimed at construction and maintenance of transportation and public housing infrastructure.
- Highway infrastructure: $41.8 billion to maintain and construct federal and federal-aid highways.
- National infrastructure: $600 million for grants to support significant transportation projects in a variety of modes, highways, transit ports and freight rail.
Federal Transit Administration
- New construction: $2 billion in capital investment grants for expansion of public transit and commuter rail service.
- Transit formula grants: $8.34 billion in formula and bus grants for ongoing capital and operating needs.
- Capital and preventive maintenance grants: $150 million in new funding.
- Energy efficiency: $75 million in grants for capital investments that reduce energy consumption.
- High speed rail grants: $25 billion in grants to states or Amtrak.
- Amtrak: $1.6 billion to support national passenger rail service.
- Airport modernization grants: $3.5 billion.
- Assistance to small shipyards: $15 million in capital infrastructure improvements grants.
Housing
- Public housing capital fund: $2.5 billion for construction and repairs of public housing facilities.
- Housing for elderly: $825 million for rehabilitation and construction for housing low-income elderly people.
- Housing for the disabled: $300 million for grants to construct and rehabilitate housing for the disabled.
Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010
Funded through bank repayments to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the jobs bill provides $48.3 billion for infrastructure projects.
- Highway infrastructure: $27.5 billion in new projects.
- Transit: $8.4 billion for transit, $6.15 billion for urban and rural formula grants, $500 million for new fixed guide-way projects and $1.75 billion for public transit.
- Amtrak: $800 million for acquisition and rehabilitation of rolling stock.
- Airport Improvement Grants: $500 million.
- Water: $1 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $1 billion for the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
- Bureau of Reclamation: $100 million for clean water projects in rural areas and to ensure water supplies during droughts.
- Corp of Engineers: $715 million for environmental restoration, flood control, hydropower and navigation projects.
- Energy Innovation Loans: $2 billion for rapid development of renewable energy and electrical transmission.
- School Renovation Grants: $4.1 billion to state, local and tribal governments for rehabilitation and repairs.
- National Housing Trust Fund: $1 billion to build and rehabilitate low income housing.
- Public Housing Capital Fund: $1 billion for rehabilitation of public housing.
Public construction spending is at historic levels and design-build is rapidly expanding in these sectors. These projects will further expand the already significant role that design-build is playing in America’s economic recovery.
Richard Thomas is DBIA’s vice president of advocacy and external affairs.