Biden-Harris Administration Sends $9.9 Billion From Bipartisan Infrastructure Law To Transit Agencies
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced that $9.9 billion in federal formula funding is available to support public transportation in communities throughout the country due to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. See state-by-state funding HERE.
“These investments will help people get to work, school, and wherever else they need to go more quickly and affordably. The funding will help communities maintain and operate trains, buses, and ferries; upgrade stations and tracks; plan and design new transit corridors; and provide access for seniors and riders with disabilities,” according to a press release.
The partial-year Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funding is detailed in apportionment tables that specify funding to states, urbanized areas, and Tribal governments based on statutory formulas.
The tables specify funding available through FTA formula programs and represent a partial year of federal support for transit. The publication of apportionment tables allows transit providers nationwide to move forward with applications for FY 2024 funds to support expanding and modernizing transit systems and operations. The funding reflects formula funding available for five months (October 1, 2023 to March 1, 2024) at FY 2023 levels while the federal government operates under a Continuing Resolution.
FTA distributes formula funds to state Departments of Transportation, Tribal nations, and urbanized areas. Formula-based grant programs include funding for transit systems in both urbanized and rural areas, grants for buses and bus facilities – including low- and no-emission buses – transit designed for seniors and people with disabilities, planning funds, and support to improve the condition of transit assets. The tables allow transit agencies and grant recipients to view the amounts for programs set by statutorily defined formulas so they can better plan and manage over the long term for new projects and address their repair backlogs.
This year, due to changes resulting from the 2020 Census, some areas will see changes to funding amounts due to new urbanized area boundaries, as well as changes in populations. The apportionments reflect changes occurring in areas that exceed or fall below the 50,000 population threshold for urban areas as well as other thresholds within the urban programs that determine whether funds are apportioned to the states or directly to urbanized areas.
Full-year formula funding will be available once Congress passes an FY 2024 appropriations bill. Once enacted, transit funding will support President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support transit in 500 urban communities across the country and rural transit systems nationwide, allowing hundreds of transit agencies to buy new buses and railcars, improving reliability and transit service.