Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Program

Section 11405 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58, Nov. 15, 2021), established the PROTECT Formula and Discretionary Grant programs, which are codified at 23 U.S.C. 176. The purpose of the PROTECT Formula and Discretionary Grant programs is to plan for and strengthen surface transportation to be more resilient to natural hazards, including climate change, sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters through formula and competitive discretionary grants. FHWA issued guidance for the formula portion of PROTECT in July 2022. This NOFO is for the discretionary portion of PROTECT. It will result in the distribution of up to $848 million for the PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program through a competitive discretionary grant process.[1] FHWA intends to hold future solicitations for funding available in FY 2024-2026.

The vision of the PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program is to fund projects that address the climate crisis by improving the resilience of the surface transportation system, including highways, public transportation, ports, and intercity passenger rail. Projects selected under this program should be grounded in the best available scientific understanding of climate change risks, impacts, and vulnerabilities. They should support the continued operation or rapid recovery of crucial local, regional, or national surface transportation facilities. Furthermore, selected projects should utilize innovative and collaborative approaches to risk reduction, including the use of natural infrastructure, which is explicitly eligible under the program. Also called nature-based solutions, these strategies include conservation, restoration, or construction of riparian and streambed treatments, marshes, wetlands, native vegetation, stormwater bioswales, breakwaters, reefs, dunes, and shade trees. They reduce flood risks, erosion, wave damage, and heat impacts while also creating habitat, filtering pollutants, and providing recreational benefits. Projects in the PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program have the potential to demonstrate innovation and best practices that State and local governments in other parts of the country can consider replicating.

By funding projects that improve resilience to natural hazards and climate change impacts, the PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program aims to reduce damage and disruption to the transportation system, improve the safety of the traveling public, and improve equity by addressing the needs of disadvantaged populations that are often the most vulnerable to hazards. FHWA will seek to award projects to communities that demonstrate a strong need for the funding; the program includes set asides for rural communities and Indian Tribes.

[1] Funding for the PROTECT Discretionary Grants Program comes from two sources: 1) funding authorized as contract authority from the Highway Trust Fund, and 2) funding appropriated from the General Fund in annual appropriations acts. Funding authorized from the Highway Trust Fund is reduced based on the imposition of the obligation limitation contained in the annual appropriations acts. The BIL authorized $250 million annually from the Highway Trust Fund for FY 2022 and FY 2023. An additional $400 million was appropriated in FY 2022 and FY 2023 as shown in detail in Section B. Currently, $300 million is authorized annually for FYs 2024, 2025, and 2026.

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