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Dear Chairwoman DeLauro, Ranking Member Granger, Chairman Price, and Ranking Member Diaz-Balart,

On behalf of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which represents an $80 billion industry that directly employs 450,000 people and supports millions of private-sector jobs, I write to express our strong support for H.R. 8294, which includes the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2023 (THUD Appropriations bill). The THUD Appropriations bill honors the promise of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and these historic public transportation investments will enable our communities to provide access to opportunities and create family-wage jobs, advance equity, tackle climate change, and meet growing and evolving mobility demands.

Specifically, we strongly support the $17.5 billion for public transit and $3.9 billion for passenger and freight rail in the THUD Appropriations bill. When combined with the IIJA’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 advance appropriations, these amounts fully fund the public transit investments and provide the overwhelming majority of passenger rail investments of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

We also strongly support the $775 million for Rebuilding American Infrastructure and Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) competitive grants for surface transportation projects, including public transportation and passenger rail projects. These investments will help communities create more resilient, multimodal transportation systems to meet today’s equity, mobility, and climate challenges.

Regarding the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG), we strongly support the $3.0 billion for CIG projects included in the THUD Appropriations bill. Together with the IIJA’s advance appropriations, this funding will help our communities begin to address the backlog of demand for new mobility choices. Today, 79 projects across the nation are seeking more than $37 billion of CIG funds in FY 2023 and subsequent years. See APTA’s Capital Investment Grants Project Pipeline Dashboard.

In addition, we support the $200 million for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Grants, $75 million for Low-No Emission Bus Grants, and $50 million for the Integrated Smart Mobility Pilot program. These programs will enhance the safety of our critical infrastructure, reduce environmental impacts, and improve access to jobs, housing, health care, and education.

Regarding passenger rail grants, we continue to urge Congress to fully fund the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grants program and the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant programs, as authorized by the IIJA. These programs are essential to maintaining and enhancing our critical passenger rail infrastructure. We also recommend that Congress provide the additional passenger ferry grant funding that was agreed to in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law but not included because of a technical error during legislative drafting.

Finally, we appreciate that the FY 2023 THUD Appropriations bill, like prior THUD Appropriations Acts, includes a provision (section 163) to prohibit implementation of the Rostenkowski Test.

In summary, we strongly support Division A of H.R. 8294, the THUD Appropriations bill. Thank you for your dedicated support for public transportation and passenger rail. Your leadership is critical to ensure that Congress upholds the promise of the historic investments authorized in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Sincerely,

Paul P. Skoutelas
President and CEO

Encl.

cc: Members of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives