National League of Cities and Austin official urge continued IIJA funding, highlight "Safe Streets" and local access

Gerardo (Gus) Fuentes, mayor pro tem of Austin and testifying for the National League of Cities (NLC), told the committee that local governments own and operate more than half of the nation's transportation network and have used IIJA funding to accelerate hundreds of local projects.

Fuentes said IIJA created access to federal dollars for cities, towns and villages for the first time in scale, enabling more than 72,000 infrastructure projects, including local investments in transit, safety and first‑and‑last‑mile freight connections. He highlighted the Safe Streets program as an example of targeted federal investment that local governments have used to reduce traffic fatalities and improve walking and biking safety.

Fuentes urged Congress to preserve IIJA funding levels, support direct and regional grant programs that allow local and regional partners to deliver projects, and expand tools—such as open data, mapping platforms and research—that speed implementation and improve accountability. He also described local workforce initiatives, including Austin's Infrastructure Academy, which the city created with community colleges and industry partners to train the skilled workforce required for planned projects.

NLC emphasized that smaller, locally delivered projects—often in existing rights-of-way—can be expedited with less burdensome federal processes and that federal programs should be designed to let local officials target funding to the community's most pressing priorities.