House T&I Committee Budget Reconciliation Title

The House T&I Committee’s Budget Reconciliation Title provides $30 billion of emergency public transit funding and $1.5 billion of emergency Amtrak funding.

Public Transit

A primary objective of the $30 billion of emergency transit funding is to ensure that public transit agencies receive sufficient funding under this bill, when combined with their prior COVID-19 transit allocations pursuant to the CARES Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA), to equal 132 percent of urbanized areas’ public transit operating costs.

The transit funds provided under the bill are available for operating expenses related to the response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Except for the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) funds, the funds provided under the Budget Reconciliation Title shall be directed to payroll and operations of public transportation (including payroll and expenses of private providers of public transportation) unless the recipient certifies to the Secretary that the recipient has not furloughed any employees. The federal share is 100 percent.

The Budget Reconciliation Title distributes the overwhelming majority of the emergency transit funds through several formula programs:

• $26.09 billion for 49 U.S.C. § 5307 grants to urbanized areas. The amounts made available for these grants, combined with CARES Act and CRRSAA grants, ensures that urbanized areas receive 132 percent of their transit agencies’ 2018 operating costs. After making these apportionments, the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) shall distribute excess funds to urbanized areas that did not reach an apportionment under the 132-percent operating cost threshold because they had received a greater percentage under prior COVID-19 grants. These urbanized areas shall receive 25 percent of their transit agencies 2018 operating costs. Finally, for agencies that had received CARES Act and CRRSAA grants totaling 130 to 132 percent of operating costs, these urbanized areas receive an additional 10 percent.

• $281 million for 49 U.S.C. § 5311 grants to rural areas. States receive allocations under the Title pursuant to a sliding scale of 5 to 20 percent of 2018 rural operating costs depending on prior COVID-19 grants.
• $50 million for 49 U.S.C. § 5310 grants for seniors and persons with disabilities.

The Budget Reconciliation Title also provides $2.21 billion for grants to eligible recipients or subrecipients that, as a result of COVID-19, require additional assistance to maintain operations. The Secretary shall evaluate grant requests based on the level of financial need demonstrated. The demonstrated need includes future financial need to maintain service as a percentage of 2018 operating costs that has not been replaced by the funds made available by the other grants of the Title or prior COVID-19 legislation.

In addition, the Budget Reconciliation Title provides $1.25 billion for Capital Investment Grants. The Title provides $1 billion to CIG project sponsors that have an existing Full Funding Grant Agreement (New Starts or Core Capacity projects) or are currently in the Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program and received a FY 2019 or FY 2020 CIG allocation. It distributes the funds proportionally to qualified project sponsors and will not be counted toward the maximum federal financial assistance. Projects with grant agreements that are open for revenue service are not eligible. Please click here for APTA’s List of CIG Projects Eligible for Funding under the Budget Reconciliation Title.

In addition, the Title provides $250 million for Small Start projects that are a recipient of a CIG allocation or an applicant in the project development phase.

Finally, the Title provides $100 million for grants to bus operators that partner with recipients or subrecipients under 49 U.S.C. § 5311(f), and $25 million for planning grants under 49 U.S.C. § 5307 regarding planning to restore service.

The bill provides several additional conditions for the transit funding:

• Operating expenses do not need to be included in a transportation improvement program, long-range transportation plan, statewide transportation improvement program, or statewide transportation plan.
• Grants are subject to prevailing wage and transit labor standards (49 U.S.C. § 5333), notwithstanding any waiver authority under 49 U.S.C. § 5324.

Amtrak

The bill provides $1.5 billion for Amtrak grants to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19, including:

• $820 million for Northeast Corridor grants; and
• $680 million for National Network grants.

The bill sets aside $285 million to be available to Amtrak in lieu of commuter rail and State-supported route payments. In addition, the bill sets aside $166 million for Amtrak to restore service on long-distance routes and to recall and manage furloughed employees.

Please click here to view the Budget Reconciliation Title (Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute).