The Honorable Brian Schatz Chairman Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies U.S. Senate S-146A, The Capitol Washington, DC 20510 |
The Honorable Susan M. Collins Ranking Member Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies U.S. Senate 125 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 |
The Honorable David E. Price Chairman Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies U.S. House of Representatives 2358-A Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 |
The Honorable Mario Diaz-Balart Ranking Member Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies U.S. House of Representatives 1036 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 |
Dear Chairman Schatz, Ranking Member Collins, 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 thank you for your efforts to advance the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022 (THUD Appropriations bill).
As you begin resolving the differences between the House and Senate THUD Appropriations bills, we urge you to honor the promise of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and provide funding levels at least equal to the IIJA’s public transportation and passenger rail investments for Fiscal Year 2022. These historic 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 urge you to provide a total of at least $16.76 billion for public transit and $7.2 billion for passenger and freight rail in the THUD Appropriations bill. When combined with the IIJA’s FY 2022 advance appropriations, these amounts will fully fund the public transit and passenger rail investments of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We also request that you fully fund RAISE grants and similar programs in the bill. These investments will help communities create more resilient, multimodal transportation systems to meet today’s mobility and climate challenges.
Regarding the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG), we urge you to provide at least $3.0 billion for CIG projects. 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, 77 projects across the nation are seeking more than $36 billion of CIG funds. See APTA’s Capital Investment Grants Project Pipeline Dashboard. We also encourage you to appropriate the additional ferry funding that was agreed to in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law but not enacted because of a legislative drafting technical error.
APTA also strongly supports the innovative mobility grants proposed in the House and Senate THUD Appropriations bills. We urge you to include at least $25 million for demonstration and deployment of innovative mobility solutions and $50 million for five competitive integrated smart mobility grants, as proposed in the House THUD Appropriations bill (H.R. 4502). These innovative mobility grants will improve access to jobs, housing, health care, and education.
Regarding passenger rail grants, we encourage you to fully fund the IIJA authorizations, including funding for Railroad Crossing Elimination grants, Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grants, and Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grants.
Finally, we appreciate that both the House and Senate THUD Appropriations bills include a provision (Sec. 163) to prohibit implementation of the Rostenkowski Test, and we encourage the continuation of this provision in the bill.
Thank you for your strong support for public transportation and passenger rail and consideration of our conference priorities. 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
cc: The Honorable Charles E. Schumer, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Mitch McConnell, Republican Leader, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of House, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy, Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro, Chairwoman, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Richard C. Shelby, Vice Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Kay Granger, Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives
Members of the House and Senate THUD Subcommittees, Committee on Appropriations