Congress passes Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Congress recently passed a $1.2 trillion bill that will make historic investments in the nation's core infrastructure priorities including roads, bridges, rail, transit, airports, ports, energy transmission, water systems, and broadband.
The IIJA includes $550 billion in new spending, approximately half of which goes to the U.S. Department of Transportation and will result in higher funding levels in existing programs as well as the creation of many new programs. Included in the $550 billion in new spending is $110 billion for investments in aging roads and bridges, $65 billion for grants to states for broadband deployment, $55 billion for water infrastructure, and $65 billion for grid reliability and resiliency.
What does that mean for Texas and Texas cities? Based on numbers from the White House, Texas can expect:
$26.9 billion for federal-aid highway apportioned programs;
$3.3 billion to improve public transportation options;
$2.9 billion to improve water infrastructure;
$1.2 billion for airport infrastructure development;
$537 million for bridge replacement and repairs;
$408 million to support the expansion of an electric vehicle (EV) charging network;
$100 million to help provide broadband coverage;
$53 million to help protect against wildfires; and
$42 million to protect against cyberattacks.
More information will be forthcoming.
Texas Public Utility Commission adopts rules for weatherization of electric utilities: The Public Utility Commission (PUC) adopted its first set of rules relating to weather emergency preparedness reliability standards after receiving public comments from over two dozen entities, including the City of Houston and the Texas Public Power Association.
The adopted rules include winter weather emergency preparation measures for generation entities and transmission service providers in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power region, as required by S.B. 3. The League previously reported on S.B. 3 here.
