Delivering Faster Restoration with Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Funding

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also referred to as the BIL, will send as much as $9.8 billion flowing toward ecological restoration through projects like dam removals, abandoned mine remediation, salmon recovery, and stormwater management over just five years. Overall, the BIL authorizes over $1 trillion in funding, of which $550 billion is new spending. This money will be distributed across federal agencies, trickling down through a variety of processes throughout the United States. While the BIL presents a funding influx that alleviates a major barrier to restoration efforts; the long and complicated traditional government procurement approaches will not be sufficient to spend these funds at the speed and scale this act, and the climate, clean water and endangered species crises, necessitate. We need innovative strategies to deliver these outcomes.