advertisement

---

This week, the full House is considering the fiscal-year 2006 Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia appropriations bill, approved last week by the House Appropriations Committee.

The bill proposes $8.5 billion for the federal transit program — an increase of $836 million compared with FY2006 and $701 million compared with the Bush Administration’s FY2006 request.

The appropriations bill also proposes some changes to the program. The Federal Transit Administration must provide monthly reports on New Start projects’ status and notify Congress of all New Start project approvals. The bill also states FTA will have to more heavily weigh a project’s cost effectiveness during the New Starts grant application process.