United States Department of Transportation
TIGER Grants
TIGER Discretionary Grant Program
The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant program provides funds to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve critical national objectives. Congress dedicated $1.5 billion for TIGER I and $600 million for TIGER II to fund projects that have a significant impact on the Nation, a region or a metropolitan area. TIGER’s highly competitive process, galvanized by tremendous applicant interest, allowed 51 innovative capital projects in TIGER I, and an additional 42 capital projects in TIGER II. TIGER II also featured a new Planning Grant category and 33 planning projects were also funded through TIGER II. Each project is multi-modal, multi-jurisdictional or otherwise challenging to fund through existing programs.
In 2011 the Department (DOT) was authorized to award $526.944 million for a TIGER III program pursuant to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Pub. L. 112-010, Apr. 15, 2011). This appropriation is similar, but not identical to the appropriation for the “TIGER” program authorized and implemented pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the National Infrastructure Investments or “TIGER II” program under the FY 2010 Appropriations Act. Given that funds have now been appropriated for these similar programs in three separate statutes, DOT is referring to the grants for National Infrastructure Investments under the FY 2011 Continuing Appropriations Act simply as “TIGER Discretionary Grants.” As with the TIGER and TIGER II programs, funds for the FY2011 TIGER program are to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area or a region.
In FY12 DOT was authorized to award $500 million in TIGER Discretionary Grants pursuant to the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (Pub. L. 112-055, Nov. 18, 2011). This appropriation is similar, but not identical to the appropriation for the “TIGER” program authorized and implemented pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “Recovery Act”). Because of the similarity in program structure, DOT will continue to refer to the program as ”TIGER Discretionary Grants.” As with previous rounds of TIGER, funds for the FY 2012 TIGER program are to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area or a region.
On June 22, 2012 DOT awarded nearly $500 million from the TIGER 2012 program to 47 transportation projects in 34 states and the District of Columbia. Announcing the awards, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, “TIGER projects mean good transportation jobs today and a stronger economic future for the nation.”
The TIGER program enables DOT to use a rigorous process to select projects with exceptional benefits, explore ways to deliver projects faster and save on construction costs, and make investments in our Nation’s infrastructure that make communities more livable and sustainable. The projects selected are innovative and will change the U.S. transportation landscape by strengthening the economy and creating jobs, reducing gridlock and providing safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable transportation choices. Many of these projects could not have been funded without this program.
As the port and maritime experts within the Department, the Maritime Administration has been assigned, by the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, oversight of a number of TIGER projects. To date, MARAD has been assigned 24 port projects which are spread among 16 states. These projects total more than $344 million in federal funding with most supplemented by state and local resources. These grants are supporting new Marine Highway services, adding capacity to ports, and improving shore-side linkages to inland markets.
For more information, visit http://www.dot.gov/tiger.
Contact Information
Robert Bouchard, Director
Office of Infrastructure Development and Congestion Mitigation
Maritime Administration
1200 New Jersey Ave., SE (MAR-510, #W21-308)
Washington, DC 20590
Tel.: (202) 366-5076
Fax: (202) 366-6988
robert.bouchard@dot.gov