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February 12, 2009
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives negotiators have reached a compromise on final spending levels for H.R. 1, the American Economic Recovery Act. Congressional leadership has announced that they expect the final package, with a total price tag of $789 billion, to clear both chambers by the end of the weekend. This would allow the President to sign the legislation early next week.
Today, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees released a joint summary of their negotiated version of the legislation. According to the committee summary, the bill contains $8.4 billion for investments in public transportation and $27.5 billion for highways. Reportedly, the first 50 percent of funds under both programs must be obligated within 120 days. Until the final legislative language is made available, it is unclear exactly how funds will be distributed within the programs.
In addition to the funding for federal public transportation programs, the bill provides a significant increase in funding from prior versions of House and Senate bills for high-speed passenger rail corridor investments, providing $8 billion for high-speed rail corridor development. The compromise bill provides an additional $1.3 billion for Amtrak and intercity passenger rail.
The bill also includes $1.5 billion for a new intermodal discretionary program that can be used for highways, bridges, public transportation projects, including New Starts and Small Starts, passenger and freight rail, and port infrastructure projects.
The bill is expected to be formally released sometime this evening. APTA will provide additional details as they become available.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has developed a website to help transit agencies around the country prepare to quickly obligate economic recovery funds, as required by the bill. Please visit the site here for more information. Additionally, please plan to participate in a webinar hosted by FTA and APTA scheduled for this coming Friday, February 13, on this subject. To register for the Webinar, please click here.
If you have any questions, please contact Paul Dean of APTA’s Government Affairs Department at (202) 496- 4887 or email pdean@apta.com.