An Inventory of Federal Funding for Infrastructure Workforce Activities

With enactment of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021 (IIJA; P.L. 117-58) and the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022 (IRA; P.L. 117-169), billions of dollars in federal funding have become available to states and other entities. Grant funds are available to cover a wide range of activities; FFIS has devoted entire spreadsheets to tracking the programs for which states are eligible under both the IIJA and IRA.

Of particular interest in many states is the challenge of recruiting and training a workforce that can put these new federal dollars to work. With programs targeting electric vehicles, battery manufacturing and recycling, solar and wind power, energy efficiency, and a host of other emerging industries, there is a mismatch between the workforce states need and the one they currently have.

The good news is that scores of programs in both the IIJA and the IRA—plus the traditional employment and training grant programs that predate these two laws—include workforce development as an allowable use of funds. For example, a grant opportunity was recently announced that will provide $80 million for the Department of Labor’s Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs Grant Program.

A spreadsheet that accompanies this brief provides an inventory of such grants.