House OKs legislation including THUD appropriations bill

The U.S. House yesterday approved H.R. 3055, a $383.3 billion package of fiscal-year 2020 appropriations bills that includes the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill.

The legislation funds federal departments, including transportation, from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2020.

"This year’s transportation and housing funding bill, included in H.R. 3055, will benefit all American communities – urban and rural – and lay the foundation for economic growth and opportunity,” said House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Chairman David Price (D-N.C.) in a press release.

American Public Transportation Association (APTA) officials praised the legislation's passage, noting that it contains provisions for maintaining and expanding public transit infrastructure.

"APTA, along with coalition partners throughout the infrastructure sphere, have emphatically told lawmakers that now is the time to invest more — not less — in our nation’s public transportation infrastructure to help our communities provide critical public transit services," said APTA President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas in a prepared statement.

The legislation did not include an amendment proposed earlier by U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) that would have resulted in a 12 percent cut to all transit formula apportionments in FY2020, according to the association. APTA officials opposed the proposed amendment.

However, the bill does include several changes to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) administration of the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program, APTA officials said in a "Legislation Alert" email.

Among those changes: The bill prohibits FTA from requiring or requesting transit projects have a CIG share of less than 50 percent. It also restores the FTA's Risk Assessment policy to its terms prior to the regulatory agency’s new policy announced on June 29, 2018, APTA officials said.

Another proposed amendment of concern to APTA was defeated. The amendment offered by U.S. Rep. Rod Woodall (R-Ga.) would have struck Section 193 of the bill. The section clarifies that, under current law, Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans are repaid with local funds are considered part of the non-federal share of the project cost.

Had the amendment passed, it would have removed the TIFIA clarification and allowed the U.S. Department of Transportation to continue to consider TIFIA loans repaid with local funds "in the context of all federal funding sources."

"We encourage the Senate and President Trump to quickly move this legislation forward to ensure continued and uninterrupted support for our public transportation and passenger rail infrastructure," said Skoutelas.