Infrastructure
Since first elected to Congress, I have been a voice for rural America. Too often, rural communities get left out of funding opportunities. In February I introduced a bill to provide rural areas with access to more than $2 billion in grant funding for infrastructure improvements.
The Revitalize Rural America Act creates a $2.1 billion grant program administered by the Secretary of Transportation to fund rural infrastructure projects such as improving and expanding federal-aid highways, tunnels and bridges; expanding broadband internet access; water and wastewater projects; navigation projects; and electrical grid projects in rural areas.
States, local governments and other public and private entities would be eligible to apply for the grants, and awards would go directly to the winning entity, rather than funneled through state governments for distribution.
The grant program will be funded by redirecting money earmarked for beautification and recreational programs in the FAST Act, the five-year transportation funding bill passed in 2015, and reducing funding for the Capital Investment Grant, a program that builds streetcars and trams mostly in large urban areas in California, New York and Florida.
No American should see brown water coming out of their faucets while the federal government is building gardens and bike trails in cities. My bill redirects federal funds currently going to urban wish-list projects and sends them back to local communities where rural Americans can make the investments their towns need to grow and succeed.
For more information concerning work and views related to Infrastructure, please contact our office.
More on Infrastructure
WASHINGTON – Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D. R-Alto, today issued the following statement after the Trump Administration announced a new definition of “Waters of the United States (WOTUS)” to replace the failed Obama-era definition.
Louisiana legislators at their 2019 fiscal session should increase the state’s 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax, but the odds of that happening are slim to none. Those taxes haven’t been increased since 1989, and that 20 cents is worth only about 7 cents in today’s money.
Meanwhile, the Louisiana Coalition to Fix Our Roads is kicking off a $500,000 campaign to force another debate on the gasoline tax issue in 2019.
WASHINGTON - Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D. R-Alto, today announced that nine projects in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District will receive more than $27 million in combined loans and grants from the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
The investments will help upgrade, install or construct nine water system projects in Caldwell, Grant, Jackson, Winn, Catahoula, La Salle, St. Landry and West Feliciana.
Nine projects in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District will receive more than $27 million in combined loans and grants from the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development, according to Congressman Ralph Abraham.
One of the nine projects will take place in St. Landry Parish. The Town of Melville is set to receive $4.39 million for improvements to its water system. The improvements will be made by constructing or rehabilitating system components.
WASHINGTON - Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D., R-Alto, today announced nearly $400,000 in grant funding from the US Department of Agriculture for education and workforce development projects across Northeast and Central Louisiana.
The USDA rural development grants will fund three projects that will benefit residents in 14 different parishes, 11 of which are in Louisiana’s 5thCongressional District.
WASHINGTON - Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D., this week voted for two bills that contain increased funding and other wins for waterway systems throughout Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District.
HR 8, the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), passed Wednesday. HR 5895, the Energy and Water Development, Legislative Branch and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, passed Friday. HR 5895 is commonly referred to as the “minibus.”