A U.S. Dept. of Transportation plan to reshape and rename the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grants has come under fire from senior Senate appropriators. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee responsible for DOT’s budget, and Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the panel’s top Democrat, say DOT’s plan to make states’ and localities’ ability to raise transportation revenue a grant-selection criterion is a bad idea.
In an April 25 letter to DOT Secretary Elaine Chao, Collins and Reed criticized the new benchmark that grant applicants raise non-federal revenue. The senators note that often, state legislatures, not transportation agencies, determine revenue measures. The senators told Chao, “Holding transportation agencies responsible for raising revenue is simply unrealistic and detrimental to this grant program.”