On Friday, Jan. 27, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced it now has $21 billion available to transit agencies and communities in federal Fiscal Year 2023 (FY 2023) funding to support public transportation.
The details can be found in the apportionment tables for each program.
Reading this information reveals that transit agencies around the nation left 259 national competitive discretionary earmarked projects from 2017 to 2021 worth $2.4 billion and 279 from 2022 worth $4 billion for a total of 538 projects worth $6.4 billion on the table from previous federal fiscal years. No information was provided as to how many billions more under various annual formula program funding from past years are still available to be applied for by FTA designated grantee recipients around the nation.
It was disappointing to read "the FY 2023 Apportionments Notice, which provides further details on procedures and requirements related to grant administration, will be published in the Federal Register at a later."
The FTA HQ staff had almost four months prior to publication for preparation of this critical information. This basic information has been provided as part of virtually all previous years Notice of Available Annual funding. Delay in providing this information will adversely impact transit agencies accessing new FY 2023 funding under future grant obligation. Based upon my previous experience working for the FTA, the agency closes down the Transit Award Management System (TrAMS) that is used to award and manage federal grants for financial activity averaging five to seven business days before Sept. 30. The agency needs time to balance the financial records for the Office of Management and Budget. The process take several weeks. During this period, no funding can be obligated under new approved grants.
By the third or fourth week in October, the FTA is usually able to resume the grant approval process. This is based upon utilizing available various carryover formula and discretionary program funds. FTA has to wait for Congress to approve and the president to sign legislation for approval of the new federal fiscal year funding. It requires several weeks to calculate formulas, program by program to determine the distribution of funding. The FTA already has the data for available carryover funding program by program from previous federal fiscal years. The TrAMS grant making system also has the data for all earmarks under all national competitive discretionary programs. This includes the status, be it already obligated under an approved grant, submitted but still under formal review, still in the development stage, but not approved for submission or yet to be entered into TrAMS.
As part of the Jan. 27, 2023, Federal Register Notice, why has the FTA only been able to update the status of carry over earmarks for all national competitive discretionary grant programs as of Sept. 30, 2022?
It should not be a technical issue in retrieval of this critical information. Table 22 FY 2023 Prior Year Unobligated American Rescue Plan referenced 12 carryover projects worth $279 million. This was updated as of Jan. 27, 2023. Table 23 FY 2023 American Rescue Plan Capital Investments referenced six carryover projects worth $186 million. This was updated as of Jan. 24, 2023. Why wasn't the FTA able to the same for all other discretionary and formula programs tables in the Federal Register Notice? The FTA TrAMS can easily provide this information.
The FTA Washington, D.C., HQ staff responsible for management of TrAMS, agency budget and fiscal programs are experienced. They have the technical proficiency to access this information. Reading all the carryover tables, the data is already four months out of date. It is disappointing that no carryover financial information for available balances was provided for all formula grant programs. The reader has no way of knowing if the transit agency earmark or previous years formula allocations may have actually been already obligated in an approved grant between October 2022 and Jan. 27, 2023.
This is critical information for local metropolitan planning organizations, state departments of transportation, transit agency board members, local, city, county, state and federal elected officials, commuters, taxpayers, transit advocates and friends of the FTA who monitor how transit agencies access and utilize FTA funding.
Why not honor President Biden's commitment to make the federal government more transparent by publishing all of this information as part of the annual FTA Federal Notice for federal fiscal year funding availability?
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Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously served as a former director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for New Jersey Transit, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NYC Transit bus, subway and Staten Island Railway, Long Island and Metro North railroads, MTA Bus, NYCDOT Staten Island Ferry along with 30 other transit agencies in New York and New Jersey.
Larry Penner
Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously served as a former director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for New Jersey Transit, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NYC Transit bus, subway and Staten Island Railway, Long Island and Metro North railroads, MTA Bus, NYCDOT Staten Island Ferry along with 30 other transit agencies in New York and New Jersey.
