New Round of TIGER Grants, Same Old Political Purpose

Earlier this month, the White House awarded a fifth round of Transportation Investment General Economy Recovery (TIGER) grants totaling $474 million to 37 states. And like other rounds of TIGER Grants these seem motivated by politics, not policy. Despite Congress’ repeated attempts to kill the grant program, the White House seems to find a way to fund it.

The TIGER V grants continue to suffer from vague metrics, decision-making using inadequate documentation, award policies based on geography, not needs, and the dispersion of limited information to the public and applicants who fail to win grants. And the DOT, although not its fault, has trouble getting qualified economic analysis. The administration should try to fix these issues, but I doubt it will.

Previously, we used data from TIGER I, II and III to write a policy brief on Evaluating and Improving the TIGER Grants. Last year we analyzed the changes between the TIGER III and TIGER IV grants in Problems with the Government’s TIGER Grants.

But this year we want to focus on the big question: Do the grants accomplish their stated goal? And the answer appears to be no.

According to the White House the TIGER Grants, “Achieve critical national objectives,” and the process, “Enables DOT to use a rigorous process to select projects with exceptional benefits.”

But the grants seem to serve as a political exercise with leadership, vulnerable Democrats and transportation committee members receiving most of the awards. While the program is supposed to achieve “national” objectives, past rounds have funded a number of very local projects. And despite this being a “transportation” grant program, much of the funding has gone to economic development or environmental schemes.

In the chart below we included all 52 TIGER V winners. We listed the official applicant, the state, the total funding, political leaders on key committees, the grants relationships to transit and relationship to national objectives/needs.

Table 1: List of Grant Winners

State	Applicant	Project Name	Funding	Political Connection	Related to Trans	National in scope
MO	City of Kansas City	Kansas City Downtown Streetcar	$20M	McCaskill (D) Commerce	No	No
GA	City of Atlanta	Southwest Atlanta BeltLine Corridor Trail	$18M	Lewis (D) 4th most powerful D in House	No	No
NY	City of Rochester	Inner Loop East Reconstruction	$17.7M	Schumer (D) 3rd most powerful D in Senate, Banking	No	No
CA	City of Fresno	Fulton Mall Reconstruction	$15.9M	Costa (D) Vulnerable	No	No
MA	City of Boston	Connect Historic Boston	$15.5M	Special Election upcoming	No	No
IL	City of Springfield	Springfield Rail Improvements	$14.4M	President Obama’s home state, Durbin 2nd most powerful D in Senate, Kirk-R Appropriations	Yes	Yes
MS	Jackson County Port Authority	Port of Pascagoula Intermodal Improvement	$14M	Cochran-R Appropriations	Yes	Yes
CA	San Diego Association of Governments	Pacific Surfliner Coastal Railway Bridges	$14M	Boxer-D EPW	Yes	No
WA	Sound Transit	I-90 Two Way Transit and HOV	$14M	Murray-D Appropriations, Cantwell-D Commerce	Yes	Yes
FL	Florida DOT	South Florida Freight and Passenger Rail Enhancement	$13.8M	Wasserman-Shultz-D Chair DNC Appropriations, Nelson Commerce	Yes	No
OK	City of Oklahoma City	OKC Intermodal Transportation Hub	$13.6M	Inhofe-R EPW	No	Yes
VA	Virginia DOT	Delta Frame Bridge	$12M	Warner-D Banking, Commerce	Yes	Yes
FL	Florida International University	University City Prosperity Project	$11.4M	Nelson-D Commerce	No	No
TX	Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority	Moving Central Texas	$11.3M	Williams-R T&I, Cruz-R Commerce	Yes	Yes
FL	Lee County Metro Planning Organization	Lee County Complete Streets	$10.4M	Nelson-D Commerce, Radal-R T&I	No	No
TX	Sun Metro	Northgate Transfer Center	$10.3M	Cruz-R Commerce	Partially	No
NC	City of Goldsboro	Goldsboro Main Street Revitalization	$10M	Butterfield-D vulnerable	No	No
DE	Diamond State Port Corporation	Rehabilitation of Wharf Unit 1 (Berths 5/6)	$10M	Biden’s home state, Carper-D EPW	Yes	Yes
MD	Maryland Port Administration	Port of Baltimore Enhancements	$10M	Mikulski-D Appropriations, Cardin-D EPW	Yes	Yes
MN	Duluth Seaway Port Authority	Port of Duluth Intermodal	$10M	Nolan-D T&I, Klobuchar-D Commerce	Yes	Yes
TX	Port of Houston Authority	Port of Houston Bayport Wharf	$10M	Gene Green-D Vulnerable Cruz-R Commerce	Yes	Yes
CO	Colorado DOT	Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnel Fire Suppression	$10M	Polis-D Steering and Policy, Bennet-D Banking	Yes	Yes
RI	Rhode Island DOT	Apponaug Circulator Improvements	$10M	Reed-D Appropriations Whitehouse-D EPW	Yes	No
CT	Connecticut DOT	State Street Station Expansion	$10M	DeLauro-D Appropriations, Blumenthal-D Commerce	Yes	No
IN	Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation	IndyGo Electric Bus	$10M	Carson-D T& I	No	No
NC	City of Raleigh	Raleigh Union Station Phase 1B	$10M	Price-D Appropriations, Hagan-D Banking	Yes	No
PA	SE Pennsylvania Transportation Authority	SEPTA-CSX Separation Project	$10M	Schwartz-D Ways and Means, Home State of T&I Chairman Shuster, Toomey-R Banking	Yes	Yes
TN	Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority	Nashville Transit Signal Priority System	$10M	Alexander—R Appropriations, Corker-R Banking	Yes	No
WA	Sound Transit	Tacoma Trestle Replacement	$10M	Murray-D Appropriations Cantwell-D Commerce	No	No
MI	Michigan DOT	Kalamazoo to Dearborn Rail Improvements	$9.4M	—	Yes	Yes
VT	Vermont DOT	Western Corridor Rail Rehabilitation	$9.0M	Leahy-D Appropriations, Sanders EPW	Yes	Yes
SD	Oglala Sioux Tribe	Improvements to BIA Route 2	$8.8M	Johnson-D Banking, Thune-R Commerce	Yes	No
IN	Indiana DOT	White River Freight Railroad Bridge Replacement	$8.2M	Bucshon-R T&I, Donnelly-D Vulnerable	Yes	Yes
WY	Town of Jackson	Jackson Transit Facility	$8M	Barrasso-R EPW	Yes	No
NY	City of Olean	Walkable Olean: Complete Street Transformation	$6.5M	Reed-R T&I, Schumer-D 3rd most powerful D in Senate, Banking	No	No
ME	Eastport Port Authority	Eastport Breakwater Replacement	$6M	Collings-R, Appropriations Michaud-D T&I	Yes	Yes
AZ	Pima County	Port of Tucson: Container Export Rail Facility	$5M	Barber-D vulnerable Flake-R Appropriations	Yes	Yes
AR	Arkansas DOT	Highway 92 Roadway Improvement and Bridge Replacement	$5M	Crawford-R T&I, Griffin-R Ways and Means Pryor-D vulnerable Appropriations, Commerce	Yes	Yes
AL	City of Foley	Foley Transportation Regional Infrastructure Pedestrian System	$4.7M	Election Upcoming, Shelby-R Appropriations Banking	No	No
MT	Missoula County	Missoula to Lolo Trail	$4.6M	Baucus-D EPW, Tester-D Appropriations, Daines-R T&I	No	No
MS	Mississippi DOT	I-20 Mississippi River Bridge Rehabilitation	$4.3M	Cochran-R Appropriations, Wicker-R Banking Commerce	Yes	Yes
NM	Taos Pueblo	Taos Pueblo Veterans Highway	$3.3M	Udall-D Appropriations EPW, Heinrich-D Commerce	Yes	No
NV	Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe	Pelican Point Roads	$2.9M	Reid-D Majority Leader, Heller-R Commerce	Yes	No
CO	Town of Windsor	Great Western Freight Improvement	$2.8M	Bennett-D Banking	Yes	Yes
AK	Village of Alakanuk	Alakanuk Community Streets Improvement	$2.2M	Murkowski-D Appropriations, Begich-D Vulnerable Appropriations Commerce, Young-R T&I	No	No
OK	Oklahoma DOT	Erick to Sayre Freight Railroad Rehabilitation	$1.8M	Inhofe-R EPW	Yes	Yes
IA	Winneshiek County	Northeast Iowa’s Livable Rural Communities	$1.7M	Harkin-D Appropriations	No	No
NY	Port of Oswego Authority	Port of Oswego: East Terminal Intermodal Connector	$1.5M	Schumer-D 3rd most Powerful D in Senate, Banking	Yes	Yes
CA	Town of Truckee	State Route 89 Railroad Undercrossing	$1.5M	Feinstein-D Appropriations Boxer-D Chair EPW, Commerce	No	No
OR	Port of Garibaldi	Port of Garibaldi Wharf Revitalization	$1.5M	Merkeley-D Appropriations Banking EPW	Yes	No
MN	Minnesota DOT	Minnesota Rural Roads ITS	$1.5M	Walz-D T&I Paulsen-R Ways and Means, Nolan-D T&I, Klobuchar-D Commerce,	Yes	Yes
NH	New Hampshire DOT	New Hampshire Northcoast Rail Corridor Improvements	$1.4M	Shaheen-D Appropriations, Ayotte-R Commerce	Yes	Yes

According to our calculations 42 of the 52 grants, 81% were awarded to districts represented by at least one Democrat. Only 10 of the grants, 19%, were awarded to districts represented entirely by Republicans.

Fifty-one of the 52 grants were awarded to members on a transportation related or leadership committee. These include grants to leadership, the Ways and Means and T&I committees in the House and the Appropriations, Banking, Commerce, and EPW committees in the Senate. While there are four relevant committees in the Senate, non-committee members should receive more than 1% of the grants.

Based on Presidential voting patterns 27 of the grants or 53% went to the 22 most Democratic states. Nineteen of 36% of the grants went to the 22 most Republican states, and 6 or 11% of the grants went to states in the middle.

Some states were awarded a relatively large amount of funds. Washington State, home of THUD subcommittee chair Patty Murray received more than five percent of the funding, despite having only two percent of the country’s population.

Many of the projects lacked a national purpose. Many were not related to transportation. Some were both. Seventeen of the 52 programs, 33%, were not related to transportation including the construction of a pedestrian mall and the conversion of a bus propulsion system from gasoline power to electric power. Twenty-eight of the 52 projects, 54%, were not national in focus. This includes a program to develop transit for Florida International University and the Port of Gariabaldi Wharf restoration in Oregon. The most egregious are the programs that are neither related to transportation nor solve a transportation problem. The largest grant, $20M, funded a local streetcar project in Kansas City. Streetcars may create economic development but they do nothing for a city’s transportation problem. And this two-mile streetcar line serves no national purpose.

Rural communities won the majority of non-transportation, non-national grants. These communities tend to have smaller transportation needs than urban and suburban communities. But for political reasons, the TIGER grants have a special set aside for rural districts. As a result, Winneshiek County, Iowa a county with a declining population of 21,000 will receive $1.7 million for a trail from the booming metropolis of Freeport (8,100 people) to a housing subdivision. Clearly this has no national purpose. Just as clearly, this trail is intended for recreational not commuting purposes.

The numerical evidence supports our contention that the program serves political not transportation interests. To be fair, it is challenging to make grant programs objective. Since the executive branch awards the money, there is a tendency for politicians to pressure transportation professionals to award grants to certain parties.

At the same time merit-based grants are important because unlike formula funds, which provide a set amount of money based on one variable such as population, grants can allow officials to award money to legitimate national transportation needs. However, the folks in charge actually need to treat it like a merit-based program with clear quantitative guidelines and objective reviewers and not a political fire drill. And since it is clear the Obama administration has no intention of doing so, Congress should eliminate all transportation grant funding until the administration learns the difference between political needs and transportation needs.