The U.S. Senate on March 25 voted 96-0 to approve an historic $2 trillion federal economic relief package that includes $25 billion in emergency operating assistance for America’s transit agencies.
The funds will be dispersed by the Federal Transit Administration once the U.S. House of Representatives acts likely Thursday on the measure and sends it to the president for his signature to make it law by the end of the week.
“Public transit provides essential service for millions of Americans each day,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America. “When this deal is finalized, Congress will have provided a major lifeline for this vital public service to weather the most immediate impacts of a massive loss of ridership.”
The bill, which is the nation’s third legislative package to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, expands on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, S. 3574, which was drafted by Senate Republicans and the Trump administration.
“We thank leaders on both sides of the aisle and the Trump administration and strongly urge them to swiftly approve the highest possible funding level for public transit and distribute these funds to transit systems as quickly as possible,” said Paul Skoutelas, president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). “The time to act is now.”
The final package provides $25 billion for transit for fiscal year 2020, which Ward McCarragher, APTA’s vice president of government affairs and advocacy, on Wednesday called “a great achievement to allow agencies to start to address … aspects of dealing with the pandemic.”
APTA noted that Congress is rising to the coronavirus challenge by enacting two other legislative packages this month, the first for health agencies and the second dealing with employee-related issues.
This third package, which APTA, Transportation for America, and other industry members helped draft with congressional lawmakers and the administration, increases needed funds from a zero-dollar starting point to an initial request of $12.875 billion needed for transit that last week was increased to $16 billion and now in the final package totals $25 billion, according to the final draft of the bill.
“After starting with zero dollars for transit in initial negotiations, we especially praise Senate leadership for negotiating the deal to ensure that transit can continue moving millions of essential workers during this crisis,” said Osborne.
An estimated 2.8 million workers classified as essential during the COVID-19 emergency account for 36 percent of total transit commuters in the United States, said Osborne, citing new research released on March 24 by TransitCenter.
“While transit ridership is much lower than usual as Americans follow the imperative to stay at home as much as possible, these essential workers must continue to have access to transit service to keep people safe, healthy, and fed,” according to the TransitCenter report. “And because riders should maintain six feet of distance from other people at transit stops and on vehicles, there is very little leeway, if any, to reduce service while maintaining public health. Running service under the current conditions of drastically lower revenue will require substantial assistance.”
That financial assistance is coming.
According to the text of the bill, Transit Infrastructure Grants totaling $25 billion will remain available until expended to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation will provide transit agencies the appropriated funds distributed proportionately among four funding programs: Urbanized Area Formula grants; Rural Formula grants; State of Good Repair Formula grants; and Growing and High-Density States Formula grants.
These are the existing formulas used to give out annual capital funds and the bill clarifies that the funds are intended specifically for operating expenses related to the coronavirus public health emergency beginning on Jan. 20, 2020, and should be used for operating costs to maintain service, lost revenue due to the coronavirus emergency, as well as the purchase of personal protective equipment, and paying for the administrative leave of operations personnel due to loss of service, according to the bill’s text.
The $25 billion includes $13.9 billion for urban areas and $1.8 billion that will go to transit in rural areas, with additional funds for state of good repair and high-density cities, largely in the Northeast.
Additionally, under the bill, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) must apportion funds within seven days of enactment, and the FTA can’t waive prevailing wage and transit labor standards in the U.S. Code, among other provisions.
Jenna Fortunati, policy and communications associate at Transportation for America, wrote in a blog today that the package also includes more than $1 billion for passenger rail.
Specifically, over $1 billion will go to Amtrak for the coronavirus response, with $492 million for Northeast Corridor grants and $526 million for the National Network grants, according to APTA.
Transit agencies also will be able to tap into a small business loan program in the bill that authorizes $350 billion in loans and loan guarantees to protect workers and businesses.
“Thanks to this deal, essential transit service has a better chance to survive until this unprecedented public health crisis subsides and we will need to depend on transit service to move millions of people and get the economy moving once again,” Osborne said. “Transit riders, advocates, business leaders, elected leaders and the other thousands of people who wrote or called their senators sent a clear message to Congress: transit is essential.”
Transit agencies still face massive deficits and more will need to be done, according to Transportation for America.
In fact, impacts from COVID-19 will cost U.S. transit agencies $26 billion to $38 billion annually, according to TransitCenter, depending on how long the crisis continues and the extent of the measures the nation undertakes to try and avoid the worst potential impacts, Osborne said.
APTA’s Skoutelas said public transportation agencies are taking extraordinary measures and have already been massively impacted.
“As every day passes, the financial consequences are worsening and more dire,” he said this week. “Without these funds, the overwhelming majority of systems will be required to either drastically curtail services or suspend services altogether.”
For instance, the industry is seeing dramatic reductions in ridership due to state and local workplace restrictions and is facing billions of dollars of loss in fare revenue as well as in sales tax, and other local taxes and agency revenues, such as parking fees and advertising revenues, added Skoutelas.