Visualizing the Funding Magnitude

September 7, 2021

It can be challenging to wrap our minds around funding at the scale of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Just the act of counting a staggering number of zeros to be sure if we’re talking about millions or billions is hard enough on its own! The majority of the act builds on existing laws that have had various levels of previous funding, so to help contextualize things, we’ve provided individual programs that could impact the lighting industry and included graphs of the unique funding levels.

1. The primary Federal Aid Highway Program (FAHP)
   According to the Congressional Research Service, the FAHP is an umbrella term used for the separate highway programs administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). These programs are almost entirely focused on highway construction and generally do not support operations (state DOT salaries or fuel costs) or routine maintenance (mowing roadway fringes or filling potholes). The chart below shows the historical funding levels with a solid line and the IIJA funding proposal funding in a dashed line.
   
    
2. Significant programs that may also impact lighting
   The following graph shows a combination of both continued and new program funding. Related to the increase in the FAHP, these figures may be smaller. With almost $8 billion over five years, in additional funding above the previous level of over $2 billion a year, there is likely going to be a high level of opportunities.
   
   
    
3. Other entities that have been studying the data as well
   A new summary from the White House and CNBC, Infrastructure bill: Which states will get the most money (cnbc.com), shows how the funding is expected to get divided amongst the states. This chart represents the total allocations per state.

   Be sure to read the full article for more details and the interactive map.