American Great Lakes Ports Association informs about $450 million of port grants available

This morning U.S. Department of Transportation released its full Notice of Funding Availability (NOFO), making $450 million available for FY2022 under the Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program.

President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law on November 15th, 2021. That legislation appropriates a total of $2.25 billion for the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP). Today’s announcement solicits grant applications for the FY22 portion of those funds.

Its important to understand that amounts appropriated under the IIJA are in addition to regular annual appropriations by Congress.

Congress has not yet completed work on the 12 regular appropriation bills for FY2022. The U.S. Government is currently operating on stop-gap funding that expires on March 11th. The NOFO explains that should Congress complete work on the FY2022 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill (THUD), it is possible that additional FY22 funds will be made available for the PIDP program. Should this happen, USDOT will amend the NOFO to announce availability of the additional funds. How much more money might be available? The House version of the THUD appropriation bill includes $300 million for PIDP grants. The Senate version of the THUD appropriation bill includes $240 million for PIDP grants. Should Congress complete work on the appropriations bills, the PIDP program will most likely get an additional amount somewhere between $240 - $300 million. Added to the $450 million announced today, the total FY22 solicitation might be $690 - $750 million.

Grant applications are due by May 16, 2022.