Sponsors (2)
Official title: To require certain grant recipients of transit and highway transportation projects to establish and contribute to a business uninterrupted monetary program fund, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 23, 2025 by Jose Luis Correa · Last progress July 23, 2025
The bill creates new, targeted reimbursement and relief tools to protect small businesses and rescue certain multi‑year transportation projects, but it shifts costs and administrative burdens to local sponsors, risks diverting construction dollars and federal funds, and could produce uneven payouts or delays.
Small businesses and nonprofits near large federally funded transportation projects can receive reimbursements for interruption-related operating expenses (utilities, payroll, rent, lost income) through BUMP funds, helping them remain solvent during construction.
Local governments and project sponsors can count BUMP Fund contributions toward the non‑Federal matching requirement, giving sponsors a flexible option to meet match rules and easing some local funding burdens for large projects.
Project sponsors are required to plan and disclose BUMP eligibility, outreach processes, and per‑entity caps in applications, increasing transparency for affected businesses before construction begins.
Local governments and taxpayers may face higher upfront costs or financing complexity because projects at or above the bill's threshold must create BUMP Funds or set aside significant non‑Federal shares, which can delay or scale back projects.
Allowing BUMP contributions to count toward the non‑Federal match can divert money away from direct construction, community benefits, or other project elements, reducing funds available for core project delivery and local priorities.
Broad sponsor discretion and ambiguous definitions (who counts as a 'covered entity,' what expenses qualify, and per‑entity caps) risk uneven, insufficient, or disputed payouts to affected businesses and nonprofits.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires large transit and highway projects to create BUMP Funds to pay private businesses/nonprofits harmed by construction and directs DOT to run a one‑time competitive grant round.
Creates a new requirement for large federal transportation projects to create and maintain a “Business Uninterrupted Monetary Program” (BUMP) fund to provide short‑term payments to private businesses and nonprofits harmed by construction-related interruptions. It adds matching/fund rules for projects funded under 49 U.S.C. §5309 and Federal‑aid highway programs (23 U.S.C.), sets project-size thresholds for funds, defines eligible uses and recipients, and directs the Department of Transportation to run a one‑time competitive grant round and implement the new rules within 270 days of enactment. The bill sets contribution limits and verification rules, allows unused balances to be retained for limited re‑use, permits Secretary waivers under specified conditions, and caps individual grants under the competitive program at $10 million. Implementation deadlines and applicability thresholds differ between the transit/grant program and Federal‑aid highway projects (higher and lower dollar thresholds respectively).