CTAA Applauds Congressional FAST Act Agreement
posted by AJOT | Dec 03 2015 at 09:43 AM | International Trade
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.