BUILD America 250 Act proposes rural transportation federal funding cuts

Many people can't drive in southern Idaho, but the Living Independent Network Corp works to fill the gaps when public transportation is limited — and for most of rural America, it usually is.

The Living Independent Network receives $100,000 from the state annually, made possible through federal funds, reports Benton Graham for Grist. The money allows riders to pay for “bare-minimum lifeline service,” but their access is expected to worsen at the end of this year when federal money runs out.

Transportation programs authorized in 2021 by the Biden Administration's $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will expire at the end of this year. Lawmakers are fleshing out the BUILD America 250 Act, which would reauthorize those programs, but with $16.5 billion less in funding.

Advocates say the Biden Administration's legislation failed to broaden transportation access, but BUILD would be a significant step back. It would authorize only $103.3 billion over five years, opposed to the baseline $119.9 billion under the Jobs Act. This rate is not adjusted for inflation, and BUILD would actually need an additional $24 billion to match previous funding. 

Under BUILD, rural Idaho and Maine are estimated to see the nation’s largest drops in federal funding, falling 18% and 16% respectively. This could leave those with disabilities socially isolated, irregular transport services and families without options, leaving them to pay for a car, more gas, repairs or insurance. 

“The Biden infrastructure bill was not the high water mark,” Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director at Riders Alliance, said. “We could do much better than that in a variety of different ways, and we shouldn’t hold up bipartisanship as a core value of how we fund transportation when we have such sharply diverted views of the role of government to invest in people and communities.”