OP-ED: Does your transit agency have unclaimed FTA discretionary dollars?

On April 6, 2022, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published Federal Notice of Available Funding for federal Fiscal Year 2022.

The accompanying tables by funding programs make for very interesting reading. Too many elected officials and transit agencies constantly complain that Washington shortchanges them. Yet, how many of them are aware of the following?

• Table 14 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5307 Passenger Ferry Grant Program Allocations. There are a total of 17 projects worth $43,366,659 that have yet to be obligated under approved grants. This includes four from FY 2018 worth $8,007,377 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2023, five from FY 2019 worth $13,500,000 and eight from FY 2020 worth $21,250,282.
• Table 15 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5339(b) Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Allocations. There are a total of 79 projects worth $355,869,919 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes 34 from FY 2019 worth $163,093,023 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2023 and 45 from FY 2020 worth $192,766,896 and 14 from FY 2021 worth $370,0398,794.
• Table 16 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5309 Fixed Guideway Capital Investment Grant (CIG) and Section 3005(b) Expedited Project Delivery Program Allocations. There are a total of 33 projects worth $1,691,922,291 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes one from FY 2015 worth $250,000,000; four from FY 2016 worth $271,321,386; seven from FY 2017 worth $448,032.144; four from FY 2019 worth $206,599,967; three from FY 2020 worth $145,570,000; and 14 from FY 2021 worth $370,398,794.
• Table 17 Prior Year Unobligated Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility (ICAM). There are a total of four ICAM projects worth $1,041,564 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. 
• Table 18 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5339(c) Low or No Emissions Program. There are a total of 68 projects worth a total of $177,006,692 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes seven projects from FY 2019 worth $15,735,921 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2022, if not obligated under approved grants, 11 projects from FY 2020 worth $37,559,047 and 50 projects from FY 2021 worth $177,008,692.
• Table 19 Prior Year Unobligated Tribal Transit Program Allocations. There are a total of 37 projects worth $4,163,780 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes one from FY 2017 worth $25,000 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2022 if not obligated under approved grants; two from FY 2018 worth $388,971 that will lapse on September 30, 2022 if not obligated under approved grants; 13 from FY 2019 worth $881,069; and 21 projects from FY 2020 worth $2,868,740.

Why have so many transit agencies not followed up and worked with their FTA Regional Office in successfully completing the grant application process for carryover FTA discretionary funded project allocations under these various programs?

In FY 2022, there will be another series of new Notice of Funding Opportunity announcements for the following discretionary grant programs:

• Transit Oriented Development Planning (Competitive pilot) $13,157,184
• Pilot Program for Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility $4,605,014;
• Public Transportation On Indian Reservation $8,752,896;
• Bus and Bus Facilities $546,024,313;
• Section 5339(c) Low or No Emissions $1,174,998,689;
• Section 5337 State of Good Repair Rail Replacement $300,000,000;
• Section 5309 Capital Investment $3,809,520,000; and
• Eligible Entities to Assist Areas of Persistent Poverty $20,000,000

Winning funding under any of these national competitive discretionary grant programs would be in addition to any transit agency's share of the billions available under various FY 2022 formula grant programs. Some of these include your transit agency's share of $6,920,874,612 Section 5307 Urban Formula, $4,111, 504,865 Section 5337 State of Good Repair and $601,222,535 Section 5339 Bus and Bus Facilities.

Don't forget that many transit agencies still have carryover funding from some of the various formula FY 2021 and FY 2020 programs that is still available as these dollars have not yet been obligated under approved grants.

Why not work with your FTA Regional Office to develop a schedule for grant submittals in FY 2022 along with a priority list to be processed?

Remember that your local transit agency is in intense competition against other transit agencies within your state, as well as other states around the nation. While working at Region 2 (New York & New Jersey), I encouraged all of our grantees to work as one. The quicker grantees could place discretionary allocations under grants, the better.

Under my watch, our goal was to demonstrate that transit agencies in New York and New Jersey would do a good job with annual formula funding. It helped make the case for new additional discretionary dollars in future years. Experienced grantees would lend a helping hand to less experienced or new one time grantees in navigating the complexities of FTA's grant programs. We worked as a team. Everyone understood that our congressional delegation loses credibility when lobbying for more transit dollars if some left discretionary dollars on the table year after year.

There is no incentive for Washington to approve additional discretionary transit dollars when you don't use what was previously offered. As each year goes by, the project cost tends to increase. The dollar value of any allocation does not. In the end, taxpayers, commuters and the respective transit agency are the losers. With a growing national debt of $30 trillion, now more than ever, every dollar counts. My staff and I would always encourage our grantees to make it a priority and secure these national competitive discretionary funds within one year or less after the winners were announced.

Like the Marines, the few and the brave, it was our motto not to leave any extra discretionary funding behind.

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Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road MTA Bus, New Jersey Transit along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ.

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