“A bill to authorize urbanized area formula grants for service improvement and safety and security enhancement, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a new Urbanized Area Formula Grants program (49 U.S.C. §5308) for public transportation service improvements, safety risk mitigations, and security enhancements in urbanized areas. Eligible activities include (1) operating costs of equipment and facilities that increase or support service quality, frequency, or geographic availability; (2) planning for such service adjustments; (3) capital projects or operating costs to enhance system security (e.g., law enforcement personnel); and (4) capital projects addressing safety risks recommended by a recipient's safety committee under section 5329. Funds are apportioned to urbanized areas based on their share of national operating expenses reported to the National Transit Database (section 5335), with amounts added to existing apportionments under section 5336 and usable for eligible activities consistent with section 5307 requirements (as modified). Grant recipients must certify maintenance of non-Federal spending on operations and security; operating assistance is exempt from transportation improvement program and planning requirements under sections 5303 and 5304 but cannot fund transitions from fixed-route to third-party on-demand service; and up to 10% of a area's section 5336 apportionment may be flexed for these purposes. The federal share for operating expenses is 80% of net project costs (with optional additional local matching).