Congress has continued to fund transit projects despite the Trump Administration's stated desire to end federal funding for federal transit. Now it appears the Trump Administration is killing transit with bureaucracy.
"The Trump administration has slowed the release of federal transit grants to such a crawl that expansion projects in the works for years are now in jeopardy," writes Angie Schmitt.
According to Schmitt, "the Federal Transit Administration is dragging out the disbursement of expansion grants and threatening to stop releasing capital funds to transit agencies altogether."
Schmitt's analysis focuses on the Capital Investment Grant program, which includes New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity. "Fiscal Year 2018 ends on September 30. But so far, the FTA has only released $1.3 billion of the $2.6 billion that was appropriated," reports Schmitt. "Transit agencies now perceive a risk that the funds will be left unspent by the FTA and never reach them."
The article includes specifics on some of the projects that have been funded, along with the much longer list of projects that could be at risk of losing funding.
FULL STORY: Slowly and Stealthily, Trump’s DOT Starves Transit Expansion Projects of Federal Funds
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Congress passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill to keep the government operating through September that also restores funding to transportation programs that the president had eliminated or greatly reduced. Trump signed the bill Friday.
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EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
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Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association