R48863 — Local and Regional Project Assistance Program: Background and Selected Considerations

Local and Regional Project Assistance (LRPA) is a competitive grant program for transportation projects of significant local and regional impact. The name of the program and grant requirements have changed across Administrations, and it is currently known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program. The program is administered by the Department of Transportation (DOT). The program originated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA; P.L. 111-5), in which Congress provided $1.5 billion for a discretionary grant program to make capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure through capital projects and planning projects for FY2009, FY2010, and FY2011. The program has been funded through annual appropriations acts every year since FY2010. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58, Division B, Title I, §21202) provided additional funding for FY2022-FY2026. FY2026 is the LRPA program’s 21st application solicitation round, with $1.5 billion available for grants. DOT competitively awards these grants based on certain criteria, which were amended most recently to align with Trump Administration executive orders. Notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) have highlighted and prioritized different types of transportation projects over the years. Award amounts, modes of transportation funded, and the geographic distribution of funding has changed as well. Beginning in FY2010, Congress capped the maximum individual grant award at $25 million. Road, transit, and port/maritime projects have been awarded each year. Road projects have been 54% of all projects selected for grants for the program, followed by transit (16%), bicycle/pedestrian (11%), rail (10%), port/maritime (9%), and aviation (<1%) projects. Beginning in FY2019, Congress directed DOT to award 50% of the grant funding to projects located in rural areas (areas with populations below 200,000) and 50% to projects in urban areas (areas with populations 200,000 and above). DOT requires project sponsors to develop and monitor performance measures for projects in the three years following their completion date. Title 49, Section 6702, of the U.S. Code reflects congressional direction to the Secretary of Transportation to complete annual reports on projects that received a grant during each fiscal year. As of April 16, 2026, DOT has published online reports for awarded projects from FY2022 to FY2026. Title 49, Section 6702, of the U.S. Code also reflects congressional direction for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess DOT’s grant administration process for LRPA and to submit to Congress a report that describes the fairness of the selection process and selection criteria for eligible projects within one year of FY2022 awards. GAO addressed Congress’s directive by submitting a report titled Discretionary Transportation Grants: DOT Should Better Communicate Federal Share Requirements to Applicants on November 17, 2022. Selected potential considerations for Congress that relate to LRPA include how DOT exercises discretion in selecting eligible projects for grant awards, the economic impact of grant awards, and LRPA’s purpose among discretionary grant programs. DOT has year-to-year discretion on how to define planning grants compared with how to define capital grants because planning grants are defined in NOFO documents and eligible capital projects are defined in Title 49, Section 6702, of the U.S. Code. Congress could consider the national economic impact of grant awards. It could also consider how LRPA addresses goals similar to or different from those of other DOT competitive discretionary grant programs that fund large infrastructure investments.

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• HR 1968 — Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 · 119th Cong