On September 25th to 26th 2024, the National Governors Association hosted Infrastructure Coordinators in Washington, D.C. for a two-day workshop. This meeting marked the eighth Infrastructure Coordinator Workshop held since the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The meeting brought together over three dozen Governors’ Infrastructure Coordinators and Advisors to hear from federal officials and industry practitioners, share best practices, and discuss infrastructure initiatives in their jurisdictions.
Official programming for Governors’ Advisors commenced the morning of Wednesday September 25th at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). Following opening remarks from DOI’s intergovernmental affairs and senior leadership teams, several DOI bureaus and offices provided an overview of their work implementing IIJA and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) programs and supporting states and territories. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discussed their progress in directly delivering projects on their lands and outlined how they are facilitating major infrastructure projects—such as broadband and grid infrastructure—through their permitting improvement and rights of way efforts. The Bureau of Reclamation dove into their progress administering water supply and drought resiliency opportunities for the benefit of 17 western states, including water recycling, water storage, desalination and drought resilience measures, and the Office of Policy, Management and Budget discussed implementation of DOI’s $4.275 billion in funds to plug, remediate and reclaim orphaned wells across the country.
Other DOI offices presented to the group on their work implementing historic infrastructure spending, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While not recipients of IIJA or IRA funds, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement discussed their efforts with well plugging and decommissioning of orphaned oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management highlighted their work leasing and approving offshore wind projects located on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
Following these discussions, Governors’ Infrastructure Advisors had an opportunity to hear from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Army Corps was allocated a total of $17.1 billion from IIJA for water-related civil works projects, in addition to annual appropriations of around $7-8 billion. Infrastructure Coordinators were apprised of some of the major IIJA projects that have been completed or are underway, including rehabilitation of the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan, improvements to the Kentucky Lock and Dam, the Fargo Moorehead Flood Risk Management project, and the Mississippi River and Tributaries flood control project. Attendees also heard about the Army Corps’ heroic efforts in responding to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Port of Baltimore earlier this year, including clearing the Fort McHenry Federal Channel to its original dimensions within just 11 weeks.
Programming continued that afternoon at the offices of Meridiam, a global investor specializing in infrastructure development and public-private partnerships (P3s). The Honorable Jane Garvey, Global Chairman of Meridian Infrastructure, provided welcome remarks to state Infrastructure Coordinators and corporate attendees. NGA’s Tom Curtin and Omri Gainsburg, Meridiam Chief Operating Officer, held a fireside chat on the role of partnering with the private sector in infrastructure delivery. This conversation discussed how P3s represent one tool in the infrastructure project delivery toolbox, the potential upside of considering alternative delivery models early as part of a holistic capital planning process, and how the private sector can leverage limited public funds to scale and improve the strength of infrastructure project delivery through P3 models. Next, Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA)’s Simon Montague and David Quam from the briefed participants on their most recent Infrastructure Pulse Survey, which found that the U.S. continues to be the world’s most attractive destination for investors, and offered a teaser of their soon-to-be-released survey on citizen satisfaction with infrastructure. The afternoon’s programming wrapped up with a conversation on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) between NGA’s Glenn Grimshaw and Nenha Young from the Coalition for Green Capital, a recipient of the GGRF’s National Clean Investment Fund program, and a dialogue on energy challenges surrounding the expansion of data centers with Robert Roseman from Schneider Electric and NGA’s Chris Fletcher.
On Thursday morning September 26th, Governors’ Infrastructure Coordinators and Advisors met with officials from the White House and over a dozen federal agencies involved in the implementation of the IIJA, IRA, and the CHIPS and Science Act. Following welcome remarks, the White House Infrastructure Team provided an update on IIJA and IRA implementation and outlined open and forthcoming funding opportunities available to states and territories. Then, federal agency infrastructure coordinators gave short presentations on how they are implementing federal infrastructure programs and collaborating with states and territories to deliver infrastructure for their communities. The convening concluded with a state- and territory-only discussion, where attendees shared best practices for dealing with infrastructure implementation challenges, such as workforce and permitting, and discussed how NGA can support their work going forward.
NGA would like to thank Governors’ Infrastructure Coordinators and Advisors for their time and contributions and staff from the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies for their participation. NGA would also like to thank Meridiam for hosting the group on the afternoon of September 25th as well as other industry partners for their participation and for making the event such a success.
