STATEMENT OF THE
AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AND EDUCATION
OF THE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
COORDINATING TRANSPORTATION SERVICES AND SOCIAL SERVICE
PROGRAMS
*******
March 31, 2004
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SUBMITTED BY
American Public Transportation Association
1666 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 496-4800
APTA is a nonprofit international association of over
1,500 public and private member organizations including transit systems and
commuter rail operators; planning, design, construction and finance firms;
product and service providers; academic institutions; transit associations
and state departments of transportation. APTA members serve the public interest
by providing safe, efficient and economical transit services and products.
Over ninety percent of persons using public transportation in the United States
and Canada are served by APTA members.
Introduction
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to submit a statement
for the record to the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and
Education regarding the Fiscal Year 2005 Labor, Health and Human Services
and Education Appropriations Bill.
We submit our views to the Subcommittee to make the point
that not only can public transportation make a critical difference in how
people get to jobs, health care, training and other social services, but can
also provide significant cost efficiencies in the process. It is our hope
to work with committee staff in developing report language to highlight this
important issue.
About APTA
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is
a nonprofit international association of over 1,500 public and private member
organizations including transit systems and commuter rail operators; planning,
design construction and finance firms; product and service providers; academic
institutions; transit associations and state departments of transportation.
APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical
transit services and products. Over ninety percent of persons using public
transportation in the United States and Canada are served by APTA members.
The Efficiencies of Transportation Coordination
Are Receiving Great Attention from Congress and the Administration
Mr. Chairman, the current budgetary climate and the emphasis
it has brought on doing more with limited resources provides a fitting context
for our focus on of transportation coordination. We believe that relatively
minor legislative changes based on simplicity and common sense can provide
for necessary consistencies across programs to make transportation coordination
work.
Recognizing the efficiencies and additional riders and resources
that are possible through improved coordination, APTA has long believed in
the potential of greater coordination between human service providers and
transportation providers. We have long seen the potential for coordinated
transportation to lower the costs of services to taxpayers, enhance the scope
and quality of service to customers, and to avoid the duplicate purchase and
use of equipment.
In May 2003, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a joint hearing
to examine both the potential of and the obstacles to coordination. One Member
at that hearing noted that enhancing the coordination of human services and
transportation had been a topic of interest to Congress since the 1970s. But,
when all was said and done, much more was said than done.
The joint House hearing heard from the General Accounting
Office (GAO) that there are some sixty-two federal programs that spend money
on transportation. The GAO also found that leadership on coordination was
lacking in that coordination seemed to be on everyone’s list of things to
do but nowhere near the top of anyone’s list. There was a Federal Coordinating
Council but it rarely met. The situation at the federal level was replicated
at the state level. Where states had leadership on coordination through coordinating
councils often created by the governors, coordination was often impressive.
Where that was not the case, coordination was simply not happening. Like the
tango, it takes more than one state or federal agency to coordinate. Those
who took coordination seriously often found they were "playing catch with
themselves".
In our observation, Congress and the Administration are now
taking coordination seriously. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman
Mineta and Federal Transit Administrator Jennifer Dorn are reaching out with
some success to get more federal agencies on the dance floor. With the launching
of the Department of Transportation’s "United We Ride" initiative, the Department
of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education,
and other federal agencies are beginning to recognize best practices at the
state level and make resources available to enhance state performance. President
Bush, to his great credit, has issued an Executive Order calling on federal
agencies to assess their roles in coordination and report back to the White
House in one year on progress they are making to enhance the coordination
of transportation programs.
Congress is Addressing Transportation Coordination
on Several Fronts
Several pending bills contain language that would bolster
the coordination of federal transportation programs. APTA is supportive of
these efforts.
Pending bills to reauthorize the federal Transportation Equity
Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) contain numerous provisions that
will enhance transportation coordination, including allowing funding from
human service programs to be used as a match for FTA programs so long as programs
are coordinated, broadening the eligibility guidelines for Job Access and
Reverse Commute (JARC) funding, recognizing Mobility Management as an eligible
program expense, and requiring local certification plans for the New Freedom,
JARC, and Elderly and Disabled programs.
As part of the pending welfare reform legislation, the Senate
Finance Committee has approved an amendment supported by APTA calling upon
states that use Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds for transportation
purposes to certify that they have consulted with transportation agencies
in the provision of such services. It seems to be a simple common sense matter,
but it often doesn’t happen. Such certification will make a requirement of
what is now often an afterthought. The House-passed welfare reform bill (H.R.
4) contains an important provision in its TANF program that would treat transportation
subsidies as "nonassistance" for purposes of the Act and therefore need not
be discontinued when a person exhausts their eligibility for public assistance.
Like childcare support, transportation aid is essential to those who not only
want to get a job, but also those striving to retain their job.
Similarly, there are provisions in the Senate’s version of
the Workforce Investment Act that call on state and local workforce planners
to account for how people are to get to training and available jobs. It makes
as much sense to coordinate training with available transportation as it does
to link training to available employment. Along with childcare, the ability
to get to a job efficiently is often the factor that determines whether a
person can get and retain employment.
It is APTA’s hope that significant progress can be made in
the next year as both Congress and the Executive Branch focus attention on
replacing old habits with new habits.
Public Transportation Provides Affordable
and Efficient Access to Health Care
Following the old adage, "follow the money", we note that
the GAO identified a major source of transportation spending in the Medicaid
program. Close to $1 billion is spent on transportation to assist Medicaid
clients. APTA members in Connecticut and Florida have had some success offering
mainline transit service to those for whom it is appropriate through a Medicaid
Pass Program. Medicaid clients see their transportation options enhanced at
the same time the Medicaid program sees its costs lowered. Transit operators
experience an increase in ridership while being reimbursed by the Medicaid
program. Such programs can be a win/win/win situation for those who need services,
those who pay for them, and those who provide the service.
Public transportation has already demonstrated its ability
to effectively provide non-emergency transportation to health care services
when given a chance. In 1997, the Healthcare Financing Administration estimated
it was losing $1.2 billion annually in non-emergency medical transportation
subsequently states began to coordinate services with local transit systems
and by 2000 twenty percent of the nation’s Medicaid rides were on public transit.
While lack of coordination between providers of transportation
assistance programs for the elderly and disabled and public transportation
systems is not a new problem, the need for these services will continue to
grow. According to a recent FTA study, 32 million senior citizens rely on
transit as their driving ability decreases; 27 million Americans with disabilities
depend on transit to maintain their independence; and 37 million people who
live below the poverty line and cannot afford to drive rely on transit to
get to work. The population of elderly transit users is expected to rise,
growing nearly four times faster than the general population between 2010
and 2030; yet according to the AARP, more elderly people now live in suburban
settings that lack transit options than ever before.
Public transportation has worked hard to improve its service.
Between 1990 and 1999, the percentage of wheelchair accessible buses has increased
dramatically. Systems continue to update their vehicles, including trains
and buses, to ensure that individuals with disabilities can use their service.
With access available to populations served by HHS and other social programs
across the country, public transportation is clearly in a position to help
these people and save taxpayer dollars right now.
Public Transportation Delivers People from
Welfare to Work
Similar to its success in helping the elderly and disabled,
public transportation is already at work helping the population of low-income
workers and job seekers such as TANF clients by providing low-cost, efficient
transportation services.
Many welfare recipients do not own cars and must rely on
public transportation to get to work. And while most welfare recipients live
in central cities, most newly created jobs are in the suburbs. Public transportation
has been successful in many cases in providing transportation options to these
job seekers, especially under the JARC program, but barriers remain. For instance,
Fort Worth’s transportation authority, The T, has noted that it has difficulty
coordinating various sources of funding to provide transportation service
that gets workers from the central city to the suburbs because local service
providers are required to track separate data from both the Department of
Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, the public transportation community stands
ready to provide a cost efficient, easy-to-use and effective solution to the
increased demand for transportation options for communities served by federal
programs such as TANF. The U.S. Department of Transportation is already required
to coordinate with HHS, but it needs to improve coordination with HHS as well
as with other agencies at all levels of government. Many states and local
governments are excelling at this process. Millions of additional federal
dollars could be saved by requiring all states to follow their lead.
Enabling effective coordination between all federal agencies
and the DOT requires statutory changes to provide the Coordinating Council
with authority to require recipients of federal funds at all levels to work
together. Taking advantage of the TEA 21 and TANF reauthorizations to require
state and local governments that receive TANF and JARC funds to coordinate
their services would be an excellent first step. This will put the experience
and resources of transit to use to effectively serve our disadvantaged populations.
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, we urge you
to take public transportation service and the cost efficiencies it provides
into consideration as you mark up your FY 2005 appropriations bill. We would
be pleased to work with your staff in developing report language in that regard.
In closing, APTA would like to urge this Subcommittee to
remain vigilant as you monitor the progress of executive agencies and the
Coordinating Council in the next year. Progress is being made but there is
much more to do.
Thank you.
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