Senate Appropriations Subcommittee FY 2005 Transit Funding
-- $7.758 Billion!
September 17, 2004
(Download in Adobe PDF format)
On September 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved
an FY 2005 funding bill (S. 2806) that maintains the funding levels for transit
as passed on September 9 in Subcommittee -- $7.758 billion for the federal
transit program, including $4.007 billion for the formula program, $3.413
billion for the major capital investment program. Within the major capital
investment program it provides $1.474 billion for new starts, $1.214 billion
for fixed-guideway modernization, and $725 million for bus and bus facilities.
The measure would provide $125 million for the Job Access and Reverse Commute
(JARC) program. As noted, earmarks for new starts, bus and bus facilities,
and JARC are likely to be added when the Senate and House bills go to a conference
committee. The bill would provide $509 million more for transit than the House-passed
appropriations bill (H.R. 5025) for FY 2005. It is unclear when the bill will
go to the floor of the Senate.
House Appropriations
In the House, the FY 2005 Transportation, Treasury, and Independent
Agencies Appropriations bill was considered on the floor this week. Because
of disagreements between authorizers and appropriators on a number of issues,
funding for highways, transit, and Amtrak was stricken from the bill. While
this means the bill will likely pass in the House without funding for these
programs, appropriations staff emphasized that funding for these programs
would definitely be a part of a conference agreement. Because of these and
other issues, final passage of the House bill has been postponed until September
21. As reported in previous Legislative Updates, the bill (H.R. 5025) had
provided $7.249 billion for the federal transit program.
The future of the Transportation-Treasury appropriations
bill remains unclear. If the House and Senate can complete their bills by
late September, a conference and passage is possible. If the bills cannot
be completed by the election, they may be completed during a lame-duck session
that could start on November 15. However, due to a tight legislative calendar,
Transportation-Treasury appropriations may be combined with other appropriations
bills into a single omnibus bill.
For more information, please contact Rob Healy in the APTA
Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4811, or rhealy@apta.com.
Senate Increases Funding for Transit Security!
Good news on the security front! The Senate on September
14 passed its version of the FY 2005 Homeland Security Appropriations bill
(S. 2537), which was amended to increase funding for transit security. The
amendment, sponsored by Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman
Cochran (R-OK) and Ranking Member Byrd (D-WV) and a bipartisan group of other
Senators, added $128 million to the $150 million already approved for rail
and transit security grants under the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI)
program. Including other previously approved funding for transit and rail
security, the bill now would provide a total $317 million for transit and
rail security.
The House passed its version of the bill (H.R. 4567) in June,
which provides about $111 million total for transit and rail security. The
legislation is now ready to go to a conference committee and, unlike the Transportation-Treasury
appropriations bill, will likely be approved before the end of the fiscal
year on September 30.
For more information, please contact Tom Yedinak in the APTA
Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4865, or tyedinak@apta.com.
House Committee Introduces New Public Transportation Security
Legislation
Leadership of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
(T&I), including Chairman Don Young (R-AK), Ranking Member Oberstar (D-MN),
and Reps. Petri (R-WI) and Lipinski (D-IL) on September 15 introduced a bill
that would provide $3.5 billion over the next three years for public transportation
security enhancements. The bill, the "Public Transportation Terrorism
Prevention and Response Act of 2004 (H.R. 5082), would provide the grants
to systems based on threat assessments and is in line with the recommendations
of the 9/11 Commission. APTA President William W. Millar participated in the
Committee's announcement of the bill's introduction, and thanked the Committee
for its leadership on this important issue.
For more information, please contact Tom Yedinak in the APTA
Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4865, or tyedinak@apta.com.
TEA 21 Reauthorization
Agreement on an overall funding level and other provisions
necessary for TEA 21 reauthorization remains elusive. As noted in the September
10 Legislative Update, discussion continues on the proposal by House conferees
to authorize $284 billion in guaranteed funding and $299 billion in contract
authority for transit and highway programs.
Congress may enact a short-term extension for the highway
and transit programs, which expire September 24 and September 30, respectively,
so that a six-year reauthorization bill could be completed before the election
or during a lame-duck session in November. However, with no Conference Committee
meeting scheduled and the number of days in the legislative calendar dwindling,
the possibility of Congress passing a longer-term extension seems to be increasing.
For more information, please contact Rob Healy in the APTA
Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4811, or rhealy@apta.com.
Some of these pages may include links to documents in the Adobe PDF format. Please download the Adobe PDF reader if you have not already done so.
