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The recipients of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grants will be officially announced Wednesday. The awardees will include large cities, rural areas, and tribal communities, with 60% of funds going to economically distressed areas, the officials said.
Rail advocates in New York have already learned they will receive TIGER funding for the Moynihan Station project, which would provide a new Amtrak train hall in Manhattan. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday that the project would receive $83.3 million of TIGER funds.
The TIGER grant program was authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to distribute $1.5 billion of grants for transportation projects. However, the program was vastly oversubscribed, receiving nearly $60 billion of applications for projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories.
As a result of the huge demand, President Obama wants more funding made available for TIGER-style discretionary transportation grants, the officials said.
The administration is "pleased with the progress the Senate has made" on a new jobs bill, one official said. Senate Democrats unveiled a jobs agenda earlier this month that would expand TIGER grants to "be used to upgrade several modes of transportation."
