During the last four years, President Joe Biden’s administration has announced billions of dollars for major projects in Nevada — miles of broadband networks, solar energy installations and a high-speed rail line linking Las Vegas to Southern California. 

But the president — and the government officials tasked with overseeing the delivery of those federal funds — won’t be in office to ensure those project commitments come to life. 

Despite the laws authorizing the spending passing in 2021 and 2022, the slow speed of the federal bureaucracy and the lengthy planning processes around grants mean that many projects have yet to begin implementation before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office later this month.

Trump and those in his orbit have threatened to undo much of Biden’s legislative legacy, but many of the big-ticket funds going to Nevada have already been obligated, leading those in the state to feel confident that their funds will arrive.

Boosting their confidence is the fact that funds appropriated by Congress for a specific purpose must be spent as directed, per a 1970s-era law that Trump tried, and failed, to challenge in his first term. But the incoming president has pledged to “bring back presidential impoundment authority,” leaving the status of some Biden-era programs murky.

But changes around the margins of grant programs could have an impact — and funding for industries in the middle of politically dicey culture wars such as electric vehicles could be rescinded by Congress. 

“I don't expect any huge changes to us,” said Brian Mitchell, the director of the State of Nevada Broadband Office, which received a $416 million grant through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2023 to improve internet connectivity across the state. “There's been some speculation that the new administration might change some requirements around the margins. But … I think we’ll implement as we’ve proposed.”

Broadband

The nearly half billion dollars worth of broadband funding comes through the Broadband Equity, Access and Development program, created by Congress and signed into law by Biden in 2021. 

Mitchell said that grant is already obligated; however, the state is prevented from drawing down from the fund until the relevant federal agency — in this case, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) — approves the state’s final service plan.

Read More: How $416 million in federal funds could help boost rural broadband access in Nevada

That proposal is currently in the public comment phase. Once completed and approved by the NTIA, Mitchell said the state and its sub-grantees will be able to start spending the federal money. Because it’s obligated, the federal government is legally bound to deliver the money — plus, there’s bipartisan interest in broadband that advocates feel will protect that investment.

Grants and loans to private companies

Officials with Brightline, the rail company building a high-speed line between Las Vegas and Southern California that won a $3 billion grant from the Department of Transportation in late 2023, feel confident about continued federal funding. 

That grant was officially signed this September, and the company received pre-award authority, meaning its expenditures dating back to January 2024 can be reimbursed by the federal government. The grant is structured to be paid out as Brightline builds rather than a singular deposit; because the federal government is funding 25 percent of the total cost of the project, the company can reimburse up to a quarter of its expenses as it incurs them. 

The company has to meet certain federally determined milestones, but given that both the program and the grant are already obligated, company leadership feels confident that their federal funding is secure.

Trump himself has a mixed record when it comes to high-speed rail. He’s raved about bullet trains in Japan and said the U.S. should have comparable rail systems; however, he was an opponent of the California High-Speed Rail in his first term, a public rail project that has been dogged by bloated budgets and slow timelines. The Brightline project has support from politicians in both parties, including the Las Vegas-area Democrats in Congress and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment on his stance on the Brightline West project.

For Northern Nevada lithium companies, the picture is a bit murkier. Three projects — Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass processing plant, Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-ion processing and Redwood Materials’ battery components recycling and production center — received large loans from the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office. Made possible by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), these loans are meant to spur domestic production of electric vehicle batteries.

The $2.26 billion loan to Lithium Americas for the Thacker Pass project closed in 2024, making it safe from any attempt to renege. 

But the $2 billion earmarked for Redwood Materials and $700 million for Rhyolite Ridge have yet to close, meaning the loans are structured as conditional commitments and that the new administration could potentially drag its feet on releasing the funds. 

And the loan office itself could be due for major restructuring or cuts — Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint authored by administration officials from Trump’s first term, calls for the elimination of the loan office.

Public clean energy funds

CEO of the Nevada Clean Energy Fund Kirsten Stasio said the state’s green bank has just under $200 million in obligated funds, most of which will go toward providing energy audits and solar installations for low-income and moderate-income households. While Stasio is concerned about how the new administration could make changes or delay approvals, the fact that the money is already obligated provides legal protection for its delivery. 

Agencies doling out major Biden-era grants such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy have sought to move quickly — Stasio said the EPA allowed limited drawdown through the end of 2024 to ensure that states could access their funds before Trump takes office.

But a few key grants remain unobligated. The Home Energy Rebates Program, authorized by the IRA, provides rebates to individuals who purchase electric appliances, such as stoves and heat pumps, or for general energy efficiency home upgrades such as changing the insulation or an air conditioning system on a house.

Nevada’s application was submitted at the end of 2024; while the state has been allocated $96 million, only $2.4 million has been awarded — causing Stasio concern that the funding will be delivered. Some grants that have come under political fire from Republicans — namely those with “environmental justice” in the name or description — could also be on the chopping block if unobligated, depending on when they were awarded. 

The Walker River Paiute Tribe won a $20 million grant from the EPA to improve energy efficiency and water infrastructure on the reservation, which was awarded in December, but an application from the Washoe Tribe was likely added to the queue too late given the impending presidential transition, Stasio said.

As awardees try to draw down funds, Stasio is also concerned that the Trump administration could use existing regulations — ironically, typically those passed by Democrats — to slow down the process. For example, many grants have requirements that parts are sourced in the U.S., which can be difficult in industries such as solar, where American manufacturing is still nascent. The state clean energy fund has had to apply for waivers to that requirement from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB); under Trump and OMB nominee Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author, these federal climate programs could be significantly delayed without actually having to rescind funding through Congress.

Clean energy advocates and leaders emphasize that the industry is too entrenched — and the economic incentive for clean energy too powerful — to be brought down by a hostile administration. And they also expect the IRA’s tax credits (with the potential exception of the consumer tax credit for purchasing electric vehicles, a political flash point) to remain intact, given that many companies that have benefitted from the tax credits are in Republican districts. Rescinding the tax credits — which don’t expire until 2032 — would require an act of Congress.

A group of nearly 20 House Republicans — including Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who represents the Northern Nevada region where the lithium loop is clustered — explicitly asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to maintain the tax credits, despite their opposition to the IRA. 

But the levers of bureaucracy can be strategically deployed to slow or end existing programs without any acts of Congress. And the lengthy timeline for state agencies and companies to go through the federal regulatory process means that the actual implementation of clean energy funding will occur under a president known to be hostile to the industry.

“If we can’t get approvals for procedural stuff, we may not be able to continue,” Stasio said.