DALLAS – Senate negotiators killed a House amendment to the proposed multiyear federal transportation funding bill that would have cut funding for urban transit systems, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said Tuesday.
The provision inserted by the House in the Senate's DRIVE Act (H.R. 22) would have eliminated the Federal Transit Administration's Section 5340 formula funding program aimed at congested, transit-dependent urban areas, including New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Most of the $1.5 billion of transit funding would have been redirected by the House amendment to discretionary grants for bus systems in rural areas of the Midwest and Pacific Northwest.
The revised amendment revives the $1.3 billion program of transit funding over five years and increases total outlays by $18.5 million, said Schumer, who is one of the Senate negotiators on the conference committee that is resolving differences between Senate and House transportation bills.
"As a conferee, we were able to not only restore, but even increase, the funding the critical [Section] 5340 program receives," Schumer said Tuesday. The program was set up under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.
The imperiled transit program provides funding for bus, subway, and rail systems in eight jurisdictions carrying 52% of the country's transit riders, he said.
"If left unchanged, the funding cuts could have been devastating, especially at time when New York's infrastructure is crumbling and maintenance costs are skyrocketing," Schumer said,
The revised measure would provide $263 million of the Section 5340 program funding in fiscal 2016, rising to $269.4 million per year in fiscal 2020, Schumer said.
The discretionary bus funding program will be retained in the compromise funding bill at the full $300 million per year provided in the House amendment, he said.
New York received $94.4 million from the 5340 program in fiscal 2014, including $71.7 million for operations in New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Monday that he would not support a new multiyear transportation funding bill if it included the House amendment.
The loss of $50 million per year from New Jersey Transit's capital budget would have endangered funding for the $20 billion Gateway project that will augment two 105-year-old railroad tunnels beneath the Hudson River, Menendez said at a news conference in Newark.
"We're not just talking about putting big projects like Gateway on hold, we're talking about falling further behind on basic repairs and maintenance," he said. "That's unacceptable for our transit riders and it's unacceptable to me."
Schumer and Menendez were among the 18 senators who signed a Nov. 13 letter urging Senate leaders to preserve the transit funding for high-density areas.
"The urban areas negatively impacted by the House provision face unparalleled congestion that cannot be addressed by building new highway infrastructure alone," the senators said. "Continued access to high-quality transit alternatives is a necessary priority that requires the funding provided through the Section 5340 program."
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the transportation conference committee, said late Monday that the panel would report a compromise measure on Tuesday that authorizes five years of federal transportation funding after missing an earlier deadline.
The funding bill must be passed by Congress and signed by President Obama by midnight Friday to avoid a hiatus in federal reimbursements to states when the latest short-term extension expires.
The $8.1 billion of general revenues transferred to the Highway Trust Fund by a previous extension is expected to keep the fund solvent through Dec. 18. However, the Transportation Department said some programs will have to be shut down if spending authority from the HTF expires on Friday, and the resulting staff reductions could slow down reimbursements to states for highway projects.
Congress will meet the Dec.4 deadline, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters on Tuesday morning.
"This week, we're going to have a highway bill which will help families and workers by rebuilding our infrastructure and giving a boost to our economy," he said.
