Statement of Support: The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act  On behalf of its more than 4,000 members, the Community Transportation Association of America applauds the House-Senate Surface Transportation Committee Conferees on the bipartisan agreement that produced the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. It is a strong signal of support – amounting to a total of $61.1 billion over the five-year course of the legislation – of the vital role community and public transportation providers play in fueling the nation's economy and maintaining vibrant communities.  In particular, CTAA is glad to see much-needed increases in all the existing programs that support community and public transportation systems. At a time when more people than ever are utilizing transit to reach jobs, health care, community services and any number of other destinations, a robust stream of investment is crucial to sustaining and growing mobility networks in every community.  Moreover, the FAST Act - through the Section 5339 program - restores essential capital investment for buses and bus facilities that was diminished under MAP-21. The conferees' leadership in delivering this desperately-needed funding will prevent service reductions, fare increases and job loses among transit providers nationwide.  Additionally, the FAST Act includes an increase in the set-aside for the Small Transit-Intensive Cities (STIC) program in the final two years of the bill. STIC – a component of the Section 5307 program – provides incentives for small-urban transit providers that meet or exceed key performance-measured benchmarks. At the same time, the FAST Act provides for a simple, but important technical correction from MAP-21, allowing transit providers in urban areas that only operate demand-response service to use the same amount of their Section 5307 funds for operations. Under the Federal Transit Administration's interpretation of MAP-21, that provision was extended to systems that only operated fixed-route services.  These, and other urgently-needed changes included in the FAST Act - as well as it's increased levels of surface transportation funding overall – are a necessary and important investment in the future of our nation's communities. Please contact Deputy Director Scott Bogren at [email protected] or 202.247.1921 if you have any questions regarding CTAA or its advocacy.