Resilience in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)

How is resilience incorporated in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)?

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The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (H.R. 3684, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) was signed into law on November 15, 2021 and provides historic levels of investment for infrastructure — $550 billion^{See footnote 1} in new spending over five years and $650 billion for existing programs, totaling $1.2 trillion.^{See footnote 2} The law creates many opportunities for states, tribes, and local governments to invest those funds in equitable, climate-smart infrastructure. For example, IIJA includes new funded programs designed to help reduce emissions and build resilience in the transportation sector, as well as better integration of climate change into existing program purposes and goals.

The Georgetown Climate Center (GCC) has examined IIJA for its potential to foster investments that can build resilience in states and communities and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The sections that follow here focus on opportunities that IIJA provides to states, local governments, tribes, coalitions, and other entities to integrate resilience into federally-funded planning, design, and other activities relating to infrastructure. 

Using the navigation pane to the right, the analysis is first presented to show how resilience is integrated into different new and existing funding and other programs, with this analysis organized by sector (e.g., transportation, energy, emergency preparedness). GCC has also begun researching additional questions related to IIJA to further inform state, regional, local, and tribal governments; for example, which IIJA programs present opportunities for regional collaboratives or networks to coordinate and secure funding for resilience-building activities, and which IIJA programs can support managed retreat. Please email climate@georgetown.edu with any questions or comments.