Federal Relations Update DART Government and Community Relations Edie Diaz Steve Palmer Vice President June 22, 2021 Infrastructure proposals for transit Baseline - $12.2 billion/year • President Biden – Senate Republicans – Biden proposal for transit is $17 billion/year – Senate Republicans - $12.2 billion/year for transit – Could not reach agreement • 20 Bipartisan Senators (also called G20) – G20 proposal under development - negotiations continue – May propose indexing federal gas tax (Biden opposes) • House Problem Solvers Caucus – $1.25 trillion - $19.35 billion/year for transit • If no bipartisan compromise – House/Senate Budget Resolution and Reconciliation – Anything that gets 50 votes in the Senate 2 Surface transportation reauthorization DART programmatic priorities • Increase funding for Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Capital Investment Grant program • Increase funding for transit formula programs – State of Good repair, bus and rail facilities, workforce development • Increase funding for competitive grant programs – RAISE (formerly BUILD), INFRA, Bus/Bus facilities • Increase funding for transit research – Innovative projects like GoPass • Increase flexibility of DOT infrastructure loan programs – TIFIA (Green Line) and RRIF (Silver Line) 3 House INVEST in America Act Five-year surface transportation bill • House T&I Comm. approved a $547 billion reauthorization bill • $109 billion for transit, or $21.8 billion/year – Increases formula programs to $14.7 billion/year (today $10.1 billion) • Doubles set aside for urban formula dollars based on low-income population/ deep poverty census tracts – Invests over $4 billion in zero emission buses – $4 billion in electric vehicle charging/alternative fueling infrastructure – $1 billion to bring transit stations into ADA compliance – $1 billion in new or increased service in unserved/underserved areas – Increases support for pedestrian and bike infrastructure and complete streets, Community Climate Investment Grant program – Establishes a new transit grant to provide for a reduced fare for low- income riders to help close transit equity gaps 4 INVEST in America Act DART Member Designated Projects • Bill includes 1,473 projects costing $5.7 billion – 40 percent of projects submitted are in the bill • Project in Red are included in the bill – Rep. Colin Allred . $1,760,000 for Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) – Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson . $891,992 for East Dallas Bus/Maintenance Facility Renovation – Rep. Van Taylor . $6,680,538 for DART’s Supervisory Control/Data Acquisition upgrade – Rep. Beth Van Duyne . $6,363,000 for Silver Line, track upgrades (Class II) – Rep. Marc Veasey . $2,080,000 for LED upgrades 5 Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget/Appropriations Biden Budget Proposal • Biden FY 2022 budget - 4% increase for FTA – $10.1 billion for formula grants – same as FY 2021 – $2.5 billion for Capital Investment Grants - 23% increase over FY 2021 – $250 million for zero emission bus grant program – $30 million for FTA research – $110 million for a new Thriving Communities Initiative Pilot program – $1 billion for the RAISE grant program (replaces BUILD) – $375 million for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) grants • House will begin Subcommittee markups end of June • Senate TBD 6 FY 2022 Appropriations DART Community Project Funding • $15 billion set aside for all Community Project Funding requests • Each House Member was allowed 10 project requests • The following DART projects were submitted: – Rep. Colin Allred . $1,000,000 for Blue Line, Downtown Garland Rehab and Rowlett Station Parking Lot – Rep. Van Taylor . $975,000 for Northwest Plano (Legacy) Park and Ride Clean Energy Technology Project – Rep. Beth Van Duyne . $1,000,000 for North Irving Transit Oriented Development Study and Technology/Amenities Improvements Project – Rep. Marc Veasey . $1,041,250 for West Dallas/Cockrell Hill Technology and Amenity Improvement Project 7 Questions? 8.