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Engage Your Members of Congress Today Regarding Earmark and Program Requests

March 2, 2026

House Appropriations Committee Releases Earmark and Program Guidance for FY 2027 THUD Appropriations Bill

Chairman Cole signals the start of the FY 2027 Appropriations process

On February 25, House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) sent a Dear Colleague letter to Members of Congress announcing the beginning of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 appropriations process. The letter provides detailed guidance outlining how Representatives can make Community Project Funding, programmatic, and language requests. APTA strongly encourages you to contact your Representative(s) and urge them to support specific projects and programs of importance for your public transit agency or passenger railroad.It is very important to engage your Representative(s) as soon as possible to encourage them to submit your earmark and program priorities as part of the FY 2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations bill. Each Representative establishes individual deadlines for constituents to submit appropriations requests, and engaging your Member of Congress early will ensure your priorities have the best chance of being included in the FY 2027 THUD Appropriations bill. The deadline for Representatives to submit their public transit and passenger rail project requests is March 20, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. ET. There are three types of requests that Members of Congress can submit to the House Committee on Appropriations: Community Project Funding, programmatic, and language requests:
  • Community Project Funding requests are for Congressionally Directed Spending (also known as earmarks) for specific projects. Representatives are permitted to submit up to 20 Community Project Funding requests in FY 2027.
  • A Program Request seeks funding for a specific program or activity, such as requesting $4.6 billion for the Capital Investment Grant program (CIG).
  • A Language Request seeks specific bill or report language, such as changes to statute.
View the House Committee on Appropriations General Guidance for Members of Congress for Community Project Funding Requests and Programmatic and Language Requests for all House Appropriations bills. View the House THUD Appropriations Subcommittee Specific Guidance for Members of Congress for Transit Infrastructure Grants and Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) Grants. View APTA’s Guidance for FY 2027 Programmatic Request for FTA’s Capital Investment Grants. Please note that all submissions to the Committee on Appropriations portal must be made by the Representatives directly. In FY 2026, Congress appropriated more than $235 million for specific public transit and rail projects in the 2026 THUD Appropriations Act. The legislation included $147.9 million for specific public transit projects and $87.4 million for specific railroad projects in the Federal Railroad Administration’s CRISI grant program. View the full list of FY 2026 Congressionally Directed Spending projects.