Rep. Womack: Infrastructure funding will continue after IIJA expires

Arkansas has received $3.524 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) approved in 2021 when Democrats and Republicans agreed to a deal. U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, says Republicans won’t neglect infrastructure when the IIJA expires.

The $1.2 trillion for infrastructure projects nationwide in the IIJA was approved with bipartisan support but Womack nor any other member of Arkansas’ Congressional delegation voted for it. The IIJA is set to expire Sept. 30, 2026.

Of the $3,524,861,389 Arkansas has received so far in IIJA funding, $540 million was tied to the Interstate 30 widening and reconstruction work in Little Rock and North Little Rock, and $282.499 million is tied to construction of 14.3-mile segment of Interstate 49 between Alma and Fort Smith that includes building an interstate river bridge.

The top 10 projects receiving IIJA funding account for more than $1.488 billion, or 42.2%, of all IIJA funding directed toward Arkansas, according to information from the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT). (See the list of 10 projects below.)

Womack, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Committee, said in a recent interview that President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget is “very austere” and is not likely to survive in Congress without more money for infrastructure.

The proposed Trump budget provides just under $150 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“The FY 2026 President’s Budget requests $111.3 billion in new budgetary resources for the Department of Transportation (DOT),” noted a DOT summary of the proposed budget. “When combined with $35.8 billion in advance appropriations provided from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Department’s FY 2026 budget total is $147.1 billion.”

Womack said infrastructure funding will continue after IIJA, but he is not sure if it will come from a stand-alone bill or if it will be part of a larger funding package. The Trump administration has not indicated it will seek a separate bill focused only on infrastructure.

“We’re still going to be appropriating money for infrastructure,” Womack said. “Now the IIJA does run out, the infrastructure bill, does run out in another year. And so from a standpoint of frontloading and prefunding a lot of major infrastructure investment, the IIJA will indeed come to an end, and when it does either there will or there will not be another infrastructure bill purposed only in dealing with matters of infrastructure.”

Womack said there was “good stuff” in the IIJA, but he opposed it because the bill included too many unnecessary “political goals.” He said the next infrastructure bill needs to be focused solely on “real” infrastructure needs. Trump and congressional Republicans have been critical of clean energy funding in the IIJA.

“We’ve got to be careful that we don’t allow certain political objectives to get in the way of dealing with the requirements that infrastructure have right now, and there are many,” Womack said.

Following are the 10 largest disbursements of IIJA funding in Arkansas, according to ARDOT.

• $540 million
  • I-30 widening and reconstruction (Pulaski County)
• $282.499 million
  • 14.3 mile I-49 segment in the Fort Smith metro (Crawford and Sebastian counties)
• $145.188 million
  • Main St.-Vandenberg Boulevard widening in Jacksonville (Pulaski County)
• $127.674 million
  • Northwest Arkansas National Airport Access (Benton County)
• $94.202 million
  • Work on I-55 (Highways 181 and 158 (Mississippi County)
• $75.151 million
  • Highway 70 East-Highway 7 North in Hot Springs (Garland County)
• $61.11 million
  • I-555 and Highway 49, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive extension in Jonesboro (Craighead County)
• $57.849 million
  • Greenwood bypass (Sebastian County)
• $55.892 million
  • Corning Bypass, part of future I-57 (Clay County)
• $48.663 million
  • Work on Highways 77, 140, 158, and 181 (Mississippi County)