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

On Jan. 19, 2021, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published Federal Notice of Available Funding for Federal Fiscal Year 2021. 

The accompanying tables by funding programs make for very interesting reading. Too many elected officials and transit agencies constantly complain that Washington, D.C., 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 28 projects worth $84,076,728 dollars that have yet to be obligated under approved grants. This includes two from FY 2015 worth $8,500,000; six from FY 2018 worth $16,104,684; six from FY2019 worth $16,940,000; and 14 from FY 2020 worth $42,532,044 dollars.
• Table 15 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5339(b) Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Allocations. There are a total of 207 projects worth $836,748,417 dollars that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes 29 from FY 2017 worth $50,232,398 and 27 from FY 2018 worth $61,223,738 (both years will lapse on Sept. 30, 2021, if not obligated under approved grants along with 56 from FY 2019 worth $264,514,025 and 95 from FY 2020 worth $460,778,285.
• 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 35 projects worth $2,548,997,548 dollars 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; six from FY 2017 worth $448,030,332; four from FY 2018 worth $40,851,398; 11 from FY 2019 worth $859,428,289; and nine from FY 2020 worth $97,346,145.
• Table 17 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5339(c) Low or No Emissions Program. There are a total of 72 projects worth a total of $190,691,422 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes nine projects from FY 2018 worth $15,305,000 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2021, if not obligated under approved grants; 22 projects from FY 2019 worth $50,750,676 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2022, if not obligated under approved grants; and 41 projects from FY 2020 worth $124,635,746.  
• Table 18 Prior Year Unobligated Section 5311(c))1))A) Tribal Transit Program Allocations. There are a total of 33 projects worth $3,825,950 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants. This includes six from FY 2017 worth $440,000 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2021, if not obligated under approved grants; 11 from FY 2018 worth $1,614,118 that will lapse on Sept. 30, 2021, if not obligated under approved grants; and 16 from FY 2019 worth $3,825,950.
• Table 19 Prior Year Unobligated Section Accessibility Partnership Grant Program Allocations. There are a total of four Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility (CAM) projects worth $1,135,912 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants and six Human Services Coordinated (HSCR) projects worth $1,178,843 that have not yet been obligated under approved grants . 

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 2021, there will be another series of new NOFAs (Notice of Funding Availability) for discretionary grant programs. These include $10 million in Transit Oriented Development Planning (Competitive pilot); $3.5 million Pilot Program for Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility; $5 million Public Transportation On Indian Reservation; $409.59 million Bus and Bus Facilities; and $16.22 million Eligible Entities to Assist Areas of Persistent Poverty discretionary grant programs to compete for additional funding.

Winning some of these new discretionary grants would be in addition to any transit agencies' share of the billions available under various FY 2021 formula grant programs and $13.99 million in Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act funding. Don't forget that many transit agencies still have carryover funding from various formula FY 2019 and 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 2021 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, 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 discretionary dollars. 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 what was previously offered isn't used. As each year goes by, the project cost tends to increase. The dollar value of the earmark does not. In the end, taxpayers, commuters and the respective transit agency are the losers. In this COVID-19 era, now more than ever, every dollar counts.

My staff and I would always encourage our grantees to make it a priority and secure these earmarked funds within one year or less after the winners were announced. Like the Marines, the few and the proud, it was our motto not to leave any discretionary earmark behind. The handful of earmarks that expired were usually sponsored by a member of Congress for small dollars to an agency that had no experience in working with FTA. The project usually had very little to do with transit and no real defined scope. We tried our best, but could not save it.

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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 Railroad, MTA Bus, NYC DOT, NJ Transit, along with 30 other transit agencies in New York and New Jersey.