On Thursday, Congresswoman Terri Sewell announced that the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham will receive $1,492,204 from the Department of Transportation’s Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program.
“As the only member of Alabama’s Congressional Delegation to vote in favor of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, I am thrilled to see the outpouring of critical investments like these coming to our communities,” said Rep. Sewell. “I am even more proud that the SMART Program provides an innovative avenue to revitalize our current transportation system. I applaud Secretary [Pete] Buttigieg and the entire Biden-Harris Administration for their continued dedication to investing in a sustainable and more equitable future.”
The SMART Program is based on the supposition that planning, prototyping, and team building are critical to advancing the state of the practice for data and technology projects in the public sector. The SMART program is currently appropriated at $100 million a year from fiscal year 2022 through 2026.
The SMART Grants Program will fund projects that use technology interventions to solve real-world challenges facing communities today.
The SMART program is divided into two stages. Stage 1 is the Planning and Prototyping Grants and determines eligible projects for Stage 2 Implementation Grants.
During Stage 1, public sector project leaders should build internal buy-in and partnerships with public, private, academic, nonprofit, and community organizations and community networks to refine and prototype their concepts and report on results.
This grant is intended to develop a fully integrated mobility system addressing the longstanding disinvestment in public transportation across Central Alabama.
This funding was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Terri Sewell is the only Democrat in Alabama’s congressional delegation. Since Democrats hold no elected offices statewide in Alabama, and the GOP holds a filibuster-proof majority in both Houses of the Alabama Legislature, she is effectively by far the most powerful Democratic officeholder in Alabama. She is the first Black woman to represent Alabama in the U.S. House of Representatives and the only member of Alabama’s congressional delegation to support President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Sewell is an attorney and a native of Selma. She presently resides in Hoover.
Sewell is in her seventh term representing Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
