Traditionally government funds have gone to one of many federal agencies, encouraging one-issue development. A joint program between H.U.D. (which is now headed by Shaun Donovan, who was previously Michael Bloomberg's housing secretary), the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, the grants are now awarded to the winners of a competitive process; like the administration's much-discussed approach to federal funding for education, this method is designed to encourage innovative thinking about expenditure of public money by non-governmental entities.
