Shant Boyajian Discusses Impact of Temporary Spending Bill on Infrastructure Funding

Shant Boyajian was quoted in the CQ Roll Call article “Temporary Spending Bill Would Delay Big Infrastructure Plans.” The article examines the potential impact of Congress not reaching an agreement on 2022 fiscal spending—which could delay the implementation of projects associated with the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—on the transportation landscape.

The temporarily lower levels of funding resulting from the delay puts limits on Democrats wanting to showcase the results of one of the Biden administration’s chief legislative successes prior to November midterms. Commenting on this issue, Shant said presidential administrations have historically preferred to spend discretionary funding by no later than mid-September before a midterm. But with funding still at last year’s levels, and with the department needing to set up funding guidance for many of the new programs, Shant said he “just doesn’t know the practicality of getting a lot of the [law’s] funds for this year out the door before the midterms.”

“I think the more problematic issue is if it’s just CR after CR,” he said. “If there’s an omnibus or some other deal that gets cut where there’s a higher level of spending and the full amount of obligation limitation, that, I think, would actually help resolve some of the current constraints. To some degree, the fate of implementation this year is tied to government funding legislation, unfortunately.”