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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 36 / Thursday, February 25, 2021 / Notices
3. Changes From the FY 2020 NOFO
The FY2021 INFRA Notice is updated to reflect priorities around creating good-paying jobs, ensuring safety, advancing racial equity, addressing climate change, and building innovative, transformative projects.
There are also two new program objectives that are incorporated into the merit evaluation process as described in Section E. These are Climate Change and Environmental Justice Impacts, and Racial Equity and Barriers to Opportunity. The NOFO reflects the importance of creating good-paying jobs.
Innovative project delivery contracting and procurement related to project labor agreements and inclusive local participation goals will be considered to the extent permitted by Federal law and DOT regulations.2
Section D.2.b.vii of this notice provides additional information explaining how the Department will evaluate whether applications meet the statutory Large Project Requirements.
Section H of this Notice provides additional detail on the INFRA Extra initiative. The INFRA Extra initiative provides certain INFRA applicants the opportunity to apply for TIFIA credit assistance for up to 49% of eligible project costs. The INFRA Extra initiative does not impact how applications will be considered for an INFRA grant nor how applications for TIFIA credit assistance will be evaluated other than in respect of eligibility to apply for credit assistance for up to 49% of eligible project costs.
Applicants who are planning to reapply using materials prepared for prior competitions should ensure that their FY 2021 application fully addresses the criteria and considerations described in this Notice and that all relevant information is up to date.
Section H of this NOFO provides additional detail on the INFRA Extra initiative. The INFRA Extra initiative provides certain INFRA applicants the opportunity to apply for TIFIA credit assistance for up to 49% of eligible project costs. The INFRA Extra initiative does not impact how applications will be considered for an INFRA grant nor how applications for TIFIA credit assistance will be evaluated other than in respect of eligibility to apply for credit assistance for up to 49% of eligible project costs.
2 Contracts awarded with geographic hiring preferences are eligible for assistance under DOT
financial assistance programs only if the recipient makes the certifications required under section 199B of division L of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116260.

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4. Additional Information The INFRA program is authorized at 23 U.S.C. 117. It is described in the Federal Assistance Listings under the assistance listing program title Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects and assistance listing number 20.934.
B. Federal Award Information 1. Amount Available The FAST Act authorizes the INFRA
program at $4.5 billion for fiscal years FY 2016 through 2020, and the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021
and Other Extensions Act authorizes $1
billion for FY 2021, to be awarded by USDOT on a competitive basis to projects of national or regional significance that meet statutory requirements. This notice solicits applications for the $889 million in FY
2021 INFRA funds available for awards.
In addition to the FY 2021 INFRA
funds, amounts from prior year authorizations, presently estimated at up to $150 million, may be made available and awarded under this solicitation. Any award under this notice will be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
2. Restrictions on Award Portfolio The Department will make awards under the INFRA program to both large and small projects refer to section C.3.c for a definition of large and small projects. For a large project, the FAST
Act specifies that an INFRA grant must be at least $25 million. For a small project, including both construction awards and project development awards, the grant must be at least $5
million. For each fiscal year of INFRA
funds, 10 percent of available funds are reserved for small projects, and 90
percent of funds are reserved for large projects.
The program statute specifies that not more than $600 million in aggregate of the $5.5 billion authorized for INFRA
grants over fiscal years 2016 to 2021
may be used for grants to freight rail, water including ports, or other freight intermodal projects that make significant improvements to freight movement on the National Highway Freight Network. After accounting for FY 20162020 INFRA selections, as much as $146 million may be available within this constraint. Only the nonhighway portions of multimodal projects count toward this limit. Grade crossing and grade separation projects do not count toward the limit for freight rail, port, and intermodal projects. The Departments awards may not exhaust this limitation.

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The program statute requires that at least 25 percent of the funds provided for INFRA grants must be used for projects located in rural areas, as defined in Section C.3.e. The Department may elect to go above that threshold. The USDOT must consider geographic diversity among grant recipients, including the need for a balance in addressing the needs of urban and rural areas.
C. Eligibility Information To be selected for an INFRA grant, an applicant must be an Eligible Applicant and the project must be an Eligible Project that meets the Minimum Project Size Requirement.
1. Eligible Applicants Eligible applicants for INFRA grants are: 1 A State or group of States; 2 a metropolitan planning organization that serves an Urbanized Area as defined by the Bureau of the Census with a population of more than 200,000
individuals; 3 a unit of local government or group of local governments; 4 a political subdivision of a State or local government; 5 a special purpose district or public authority with a transportation function, including a port authority; 6 a Federal land management agency that applies jointly with a State or group of States;
7 a tribal government or a consortium of tribal governments; or 8 a multiState or multijurisdictional group of public entities.
Multiple States or jurisdictions that submit a joint application should identify a lead applicant as the primary point of contact. Joint applications should include a description of the roles and responsibilities of each applicant and should be signed by each applicant.
The applicant that will be responsible for financial administration of the project must be an eligible applicant.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching This section describes the statutory cost share requirements for an INFRA
award. Cost share will also be evaluated according to the Leveraging of Federal Funding evaluation criterion described in Section E.1.a Criterion 4. That section clarifies that the Department seeks applications for projects that exceed the minimum non-Federal cost share requirement described here.
INFRA grants may be used for up to 60 percent of future eligible project costs. Other Federal assistance may satisfy the non-Federal share requirement for an INFRA grant, but total Federal assistance for a project receiving an INFRA grant may not exceed 80 percent of future eligible
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