The Rural and Tribal Assistance Program provides funding for planning and design phase activities for rural and tribal infrastructure projects. This program will award grants for either the hiring of staff or the procurement of expert firms to provide financial, technical, and legal assistance with project-related planning and design phase activities. Grants are awarded on a first come, first-served basis to eligible applications.

Per the RTA Program’s requirements, projects that receive a grant award under this Program must be reasonably expected to be eligible for any one or more of DOT’s lending or grant programs listed below. This requirement is used to define the eligible project types for RTA Program funding; it does not commit the applicant to apply to any of these programs.

• TIFIA Credit Program
• RRIF Credit Program
• INFRA Grant Program
• Mega Grant Program
• BUILD Grant Program
• National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program