Sponsors (2)
The bill channels federal money to modernize infrastructure and environmental resilience around land ports—helping local, tribal, and state governments improve trade, health, and readiness—at the cost of sizable local cost‑shares, eligibility and prioritization limits, centralized decisionmaking, and funding/oversight tradeoffs.
State, Tribal, and local governments (including border communities) gain access to federal grants to build or modernize transportation and utility infrastructure serving land ports of entry, which should improve cross‑border travel and trade efficiency.
Communities near ports (including those within 25 miles and tribal areas) can get prioritized funding for environmental and health-related projects—such as water/wastewater upgrades, pollution mitigation, and resilience/emergency‑preparedness—reducing local environmental degradation and improving public health and safety.
State and local jurisdictions can receive financial relief through reimbursement of prior expenditures (up to 70%) and potential reductions or waivers of matching requirements for rural or high-security‑priority projects, lowering upfront local funding barriers for eligible projects.
Local governments, tribal jurisdictions, and utilities still face significant cost burdens because projects typically require a 30% non‑Federal match and reimbursements only cover up to 70% (with timing limits), risking delayed projects or unreimbursed local expenses.
Some affected communities and projects may be excluded by eligibility rules—private for‑profit developers and utilities are barred, and geographic/population cutoffs (25‑mile radius, 100,000 population rural threshold) could leave impacted areas ineligible.
Concentrating program authority at the Secretary of Homeland Security and requiring multi‑agency consultation centralizes decisionmaking and adds administrative review steps, which may reduce local control and slow project approvals.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes DHS grants to upgrade or repair community infrastructure that supports or is impacted by land ports of entry, with eligibility rules, matching requirements, and reimbursements back to Nov 15, 2021.
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Tony Gonzales · Last progress December 17, 2025
Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to create a grant program to help states, tribes, local governments, and not-for-profit, member-owned utilities fix or modernize community infrastructure that supports land ports of entry or is within 25 miles and disproportionately affected by a port. The program sets eligibility rules, project categories (transportation, water, utilities, resilience, local impacts, and quality-of-life for personnel families), a default 30% non‑Federal match (with possible reductions or waivers for rural or high-priority projects), and allows reimbursement of eligible prior expenditures back to November 15, 2021. Funding is authorized as needed but grants depend on future appropriations, and awarded funds may remain available until spent.