Later today (June 25), the House of Representatives is expected to pass H.R. 3055, which is a “minibus” appropriations bill that includes the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations bill (H.R. 3163) and several other appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2020.

APTA successfully opposed the Perry and Woodall amendments:

• Perry Amendment #237: Rep. Perry chose not to offer his amendment.
  An amendment, sponsored by Representative Scott Perry (R-PA), would have stricken section 164 of the bill and would have resulted in every public transit agency facing significant cuts in FY 2020. The Perry Amendment would have resulted in an estimated 12 percent cut to all transit formula apportionments in FY 2020. The amendment reapplied the Rostenkowski Test, which would have forced an estimated $1.2 billion cut to public transit formula funding.In addition, section 164 of the bill includes several important changes to the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) administration of the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program.The bill prohibits FTA from:
  • Requiring or requesting that projects have a CIG share of less than 50 percent;
  • Determining the CIG share until at least 180 days after the project has entered the Engineering phase; and
  • For projects currently in the CIG pipeline, requiring a probability threshold greater than 50 percent when determining the project’s budget and schedule. This provision restores FTA’s Risk Assessment policy to its terms prior to FTA’s new policy announced on June 29, 2018.The Perry amendment would have stricken these CIG provisions from the bill.

• Woodall Amendment #229: Defeated by Voice Vote.
  An amendment, sponsored by Representative Rob Woodall (R-GA), would have struck section 193 of the bill. Section 193 of the bill clarifies that, under current law, Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans repaid with local funds are considered part of the non-Federal share of the project cost. The Woodall Amendment struck this TIFIA clarification and allowed the U.S. Department of Transportation to continue to consider TIFIA loans repaid with local funds “in the context of all Federal funding sources…” See FTA Dear Colleague letter (June 29, 2018).

The House is scheduled to vote on final passage later today. For more details on the THUD Appropriations bill, please see APTA’s previous Legislative Update.

Coalition Letter
On June 14, APTA joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 40 other national organizations, businesses, and labor unions calling on the President and Congressional Leadership to invest in infrastructure. The letter states that increased investment should be funded by raising the gas tax, as endorsed by the Chamber, APTA, and many other national, state, and local entities. You can view the coalition letter.