Trump Administration Continues to Delay Allocated Transit Funds

"Congress has allocated about $4 billion for new transit projects since 2017. But the federal Department of Transportation has handed out just 30 percent of the available funds. About $2.7 billion remains to be distributed to more than two dozen cities that are expecting grants," according to Schmitt.

This isn't the first time transit advocates, led by Transportation for America, have raised alarms about the federal government's reluctance to disburse promised transit funds. Transportation for America launched a countdown clock in August 2018 to track missing transit funds, and some promised funding began to make its way to local and state agencies late in the year—significantly later than the tardy bell.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA), is "failing to administer the grant program in good faith and in a timely fashion," according to a statement by Transportation for America reported by Schmitt.

Still unresolved, according to Schmitt: whether the delays are driven by ideology or dysfunction.