The Federal Infrastructure Funding Tracker

Last updated October 21, 2026

Communities nationwide benefit from federal investments to maintain and expand vital infrastructure, including transportation, housing, energy, water, and broadband. Though many of these investments have historically improved community well-being, some federal support has left other communities behind.

As federal policymakers have allocated more funding for infrastructure projects in recent years, new questions must be asked: Where have federal infrastructure dollars been spent? And did those dollars reach the communities that most need funding?

Infrastructure Funding Trends

Public Transportation

Public transportation funding tends to go to places with lower transportation costs and greater access to employment.

Roads and Bridges

Funding for roads and bridges tends to go to places that are heavily reliant on car travel already.

Broadband

Broadband programs direct more funding to places with less internet access and lower broadband speeds.

Housing and Community Development

Housing and community development funds are distributed more often to places with higher housing cost burdens and more overcrowding.

Passenger and Freight Rail

Passenger and freight rail funds are disproportionately distributed to places without intercity passenger rail service.

Airports and Docks

Airport and dock programs tend to fund areas with existing airports and docks, rather than investing in new areas.

Energy and Power

Energy and power programs direct similar levels of funding to places with high household energy costs as to places with lower household energy costs.

Environmental Resilience

Environmental resilience programs direct more funding to places with low incomes.

Water Conservation

Water conservation programs send more funds to places with more water system violations.
See all nine infrastructure categories

We analyzed dozens of federal funding initiatives to determine how much federal infrastructure money communities have received and whether that funding has met community needs. This tool includes many of the most significant infrastructure programs enacted through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act, and other laws, but it is not exhaustive.

Explore where federal infrastructure investments have been made

Search for a type of infrastructure or a geography.

Not sure where to start?

Try searching for a state, county, metropolitan area, or micropolitan area (Illinois, Cook County, or Chicago, for example) to see if it receives funding proportional to its needs. Or try searching for an infrastructure category (like public transportation) to see if the programs in that category distribute funds in a way that meets community needs.

Some infrastructure projects are competitively funded, meaning federal officials review applications from prospective grantees and then choose where to direct money. Other projects are formula funded, meaning states and localities distribute a pot of federal money allocated to them by Congress or federal agencies. For more information on funding mechanisms, see our user guide.

Where Was Funding Distributed?

Roads and Bridges

About

Update: This tool was updated on October 21, 2026 with a new data source for federal funding information, new fiscal years of data, new measures of community need, and new analysis pages by infrastructure category.

In this tool, we analyze 71 major federal infrastructure programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriations (many programs were allocated funding through multiple laws). The funding data comes from USAspending.gov, which is standardized across federal agencies. Data in the initial tool release (2023) and prior update (2025) came from a combination of sources, including USAspending.gov, program fact sheets, and agency-level press releases and award announcements.

Demographic and need indicator data come from approximately 25 publicly available sources, including the 2016–20 American Community Survey five-year estimates from the US Census Bureau and data produced by other federal agencies.

To learn more about how to use this tool and how we’ve updated it over time, see our user guide.

Download data
Visit the Infrastructure Investments Hub

Project Credits

This data tool was funded by a grant from the Melville Charitable Trust as part of our work in the Infrastructure Investments Hub. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts. More information on our funding principles is available here. Read our terms of service here.

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