FTA Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Apportionments, Allocations, and Program Information

SUMMARY: On January 17, 2014, President Obama signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, (FY 2014 Appropriations) which provided a full fiscal year's funding for Federal Transit Assistance programs. Previous continuing resolutions had provided funds through January 18, 2014. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) annually publishes one or more notices apportioning funds appropriated by law. This notice apportions and provides information on the FY 2014 funding available for the FTA assistance programs, and provides program guidance and requirements, and information on several program issues important in the current year. This notice also provides information on FTA's discretionary programs and forthcoming program guidance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information about this notice contact Jamie Pfister, Director, Office of Transit Programs, at (202) 366-2053. Please contact the appropriate FTA regional office for any specific requests for information or technical assistance. A list of FTA regional offices and contact information is available on the FTA Web site under the heading "Regional Offices" at http://www.fta.dot.gov. An FTA headquarters contact for each major program area is included in the discussion of that program in the text of the notice.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I. Overview

II. FY 2014 Available Funding for FTA Programs

A. Funding Based on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014

B. Oversight Takedown

C. FY 2014 Formula Apportionments; Data and Methodology

D. FY 2014 Discretionary Program Funding

III. FY 2014 Program Highlights and Changes

A. MAP-21 Implementation

B. FHWA Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Funds for Operating Assistance

C. Transitioning to a New Electronic Grant Management System

D. Flood Insurance

E. New Common Rule

IV. FY 2014 Program Specific Information

A. Metropolitan Planning Program (49 U.S.C. 5305(d))

B. State Planning and Research Program (49 U.S.C. 5305(e))

C. Urbanized Area Formula Program (49 U.S.C. 5307)

D. Fixed Guideway Capital Investment Grant Program (49 U.S.C. 5309)--New and Small Starts and Core Capacity

E. Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals With Disabilities Program (49 U.S.C. 5310)

F. Rural Area Formula Program (49 U.S.C. 5311)

G. Rural Transportation Assistance Program (49 U.S.C. 5311(b)(3))

H. Appalachian Development Public Transportation Assistance Program (49 U.S.C. 5311(c)(2))

I. Formula Grants for Public Transportation on Indian Reservations Program (49 U.S.C. 5311(j))

J. Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment Projects (49 U.S.C. 5312)

K. Transit Cooperative Research Program (49 U.S.C. 5313)

L. Technical Assistance and Standards Development (49 U.S.C. 5314)

M. Human Resources and Training Programs (49 U.S.C. 5322)

N. Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program (49 U.S.C. 5324)

O. Public Transportation Safety Program (49 U.S.C. 5329)

P. State of Good Repair Program (49 U.S.C. 5337)

Q. Bus and Bus Facilities Formula Grants (49 U.S.C. 5339)

R. Growing States and High Density States Formula Factors (49 U.S.C. 5340)

S. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Grants (section 601 of Pub. L. 110-432)

V. FTA Policy and Procedures for FY 2014 Grants

A. Automatic Pre-Award Authority To Incur Project Costs

B. Letter of No Prejudice (LONP) Policy

C. FY 2014 Annual List of Certifications and Assurances

D. Civil Rights

E. FHWA Flex Funds and Consolidated Planning Grants

F. Grant Application Procedures

G. Grant Management

I. Overview

On October 1, 2012, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) (Pub. L. 112-141) authorized the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) public transportation assistance programs for FYs 2013-2014. A notice announcing changes and implementation instructions in FTA programs in accordance with MAP-21 was published in the Federal Register on October 16, 2012. (See 77 FR 63669). On January 17, 2014, the FY 2014 Appropriations Act (Pub. L. 113-76) was signed into law, providing a full fiscal year of funding for FTA's programs as authorized by MAP-21. Prior to January 17, 2014, Congress provided partial funding for FY 2014 through continuing resolutions (Pub. L. 113-46 and Pub. L. 113-73). This notice apportions formula funds based on the Appropriations Act, 2014. In addition, this notice provides funding information for FTA's FY 2014 discretionary programs, including the FY 2014 Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program allocations and prior year discretionary programs and their unobligated balances. Finally, this notice provides program information, including the status of MAP-21 implementation for many of the grant programs.

Consistent with the budget authority provided in MAP-21, for FTA's formula programs, the FY 2014 Appropriations provides an obligation limitation of $8.595 billion in FY 2014. The FY 2014 Appropriations also provides $150 million in FY 2014 for grants to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority; $1.943 billion for the Capital Investment Grant Program; and $48 million for the Research, Technical Assistance and Training Programs.

II. FY 2014 Available Funding for FTA Programs

A. Funding Based on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014

The FY 2014 Appropriations Act provides $10.841 billion for FTA programs and administrative expenses in FY 2014, of which $8.595 billion is derived from the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund and is available for formula programs. This is in addition to over $7 billion in formula funds that remain unobligated from prior fiscal years. The FY 2014 Appropriations Act also provides $93.269 million in FY 1999 through 2010 unobligated discretionary bus and bus facilities funds for new bus rapid transit projects recommend in the President's FY 2014 budget submission to Congress provided that such funds are subject to the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program requirements under 49 U.S.C. 5309, and permits unobligated and recovered FY 2010 through 2012 funds for 49 U.S.C. 5339, Alternative Analysis, to be used for CIG purposes as well.

B. Oversight Takedown

In order to conduct program oversight activities in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 5338(i), 0.5 percent is set aside from the amounts available to carry out the Planning Programs (section 5305); the Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities Formula Program (section 5310); and the Rural Areas Formula Grants Program (section 5311). In addition, 0.75 percent is set aside from amounts made available to carry out the Urbanized Area Formula Grants Programs, and the High Intensity Fixed Guideway State of Good Repair Formula Program (section 5337(c)). Additionally, one percent of the amounts made available to carry out the CIG Program (section 5309) as well as one percent of the amounts available for grants to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (section 601 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110-432)) is set aside for oversight activities.

C. FY 2014 Formula Apportionments; Data and Methodology

FTA is publishing apportionment tables on its Web site for each program that reflects the full year appropriations less oversight take-downs, as applicable. FTA is continuing to use, as it did in FY 2013, urbanized area and demographic data from the 2010 Census. Tables displaying the funds available to eligible states, tribes, and urbanized areas have been posted on FTA's Web site at http://www.fta.dot.gov/apportionments.

1. National Transit Database and Census Data Used in the FY 2014 Apportionments

Consistent with past practices, the calculations for sections 5307, 5311, including 5311(j) ("Tribal Transit"), 5329, 5337, and 5339 programs rely on transit service data reported to the National Transit Database (NTD) in 2012, the most recent year that NTD data is available. In some cases where an apportionment is based on the age of the system, the age is calculated as of September 30, 2013. Any recipient or beneficiary of either the section 5307 or section 5311 program funds is required to report to the NTD. Additionally, a number of transit operators report to the NTD on a voluntary basis. For 2012, the NTD includes data from 821 reporters in urbanized areas, 795 of which reported operating transit service. The NTD reports 1,256 providers of rural transit reserve, which includes 130 Indian Tribes providing transit service.

The tiers of the sections 5303, 5305, 5307 and 5339 formulas that are based on population and population density continue to rely on data published by the 2010 Census, as required by MAP-21. Likewise, the tiers of the section 5311 formula that are based on rural population and rural land area are calculated using 2010 Census data.

Sections 5307, 5311, and 5311(j) formulas include tiers where funding is allocated on the basis of the number of persons living in poverty and the section 5310 formula allocates funding on the basis of the population of older adults and people with disabilities. The Census Bureau no longer publishes decennial census data on persons living in poverty and persons with disabilities. As a result, FTA uses the data for these populations available via the Census' American Community Survey (ACS), which is updated annually.

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--

Notice.

Citation: "79 FR 13462"

Federal Register Page Number: "13462"

"Notices"