SAFETEA-LU establishes a new program of
formula-based transit grants, the Sec. 5317 New Freedom Program. This is part
of a larger, government-wide "New Freedom Initiative" that
President Bush has been promoting since his first presidential campaign.
Formally established in 2001 through Presidential Executive Order, the New
Freedom Initiative is a means to integrate persons with disabilities into the
workforce, and into daily community life, through a variety of strategies
carried out by the federal departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
Housing and Urban Development, Education, Justice, Veterans Affairs, and -
now - Transportation. For more information on the government-wide
initiative and its related resources, go on-line to www.disabilityinfo.gov.
The Sec. 5317 transit program allocates
money based on states' and urbanized areas' populations of persons with disabilities.
Sixty percent of each year's Sec. 5317 appropriation is distributed to the
urban transit systems in areas with populations greater than 200,000. Twenty
percent is distributed to the states for use in their urban areas with
populations between 50,000 and 200,000, and the remaining twenty percent is
distributed to the states for use in their rural areas.
SAFETEA-LU guarantees the following levels
of Sec. 5317 New Freedom Transit funding:
FY 2006, $78.0 million
FY 2007, $81.0 million
FY 2008, $87.5 million
FY 2009, $92.5 million
States and large-urban transit systems
receiving these Sec. 5317 allocations are not to engage in New Freedom transit
activities themselves. Instead, they are to carry out areawide
competitive solicitations for local New Freedom projects. The eligible subrecipients are units of state or local government,
nonprofit organizations, and other operators of public transportation services.
Starting in FY 2007, these projects, if they are to receive Sec. 5317 funds,
are to be selected through locally developed, coordinated public transit-human
services transportation plans. This is the same type of process that SAFETEA-LU
now requires of states and urbanized areas with regard to Sec. 5316 Job Access
and Reverse Commute grants, and for states' Sec. 5310 elderly and disabilities
transit grants.
Sec. 5317 funds are to be used to provide
public transportation services and alternatives above and beyond the baseline
requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), especially to help
persons with disabilities access jobs and employment-related services. These
funds may be used for capital expenses (at an 80 percent federal share) or
operating expenses (at a 50 percent federal share);
the "non-federal" share may be derived from cash, service
agreements with state, local or private social services organizations, or from
other federal funding sources, including Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF), that allow their funds to be expended on transportation
activities.
Thus far, there are no further pieces of
guidance from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on the details of the
New Freedom transit program. Some information is likely to be issued in
conjunction with the FY 2006 annual apportionment of FTA formula grants, whenever
that occurs, but most of the FTA guidance on this program is likely to be timed
to help states and urban areas prepare for the FY 2007 program year.
Easily overlooked, but perhaps most significant
in the long run, SAFETEA-LU now requires that representatives of the disability
community have a meaningful voice in statewide and metropolitan transportation
planning processes.
In the realm of FTA grant programs,
SAFETEA-LU continues all the programs that have been of greatest value to the
disability community, including the Sec. 5307 and 5311 formula grants for
public transit in urban and rural areas, and the Sec. 5310 program of capital
assistance for elderly and disabled persons' transit. Other "Capitol
Clips" discuss these programs in greater detail, but it should be noted
that SAFETEA-LU calls for a seven-state demonstration of Sec. 5310 operating
assistance eligibility, with the details yet to be determined by FTA.
SAFETEA-LU continues to allow all transit systems in areas with populations of
more than 200,000 to spend up to 10 percent of their Sec. 5307 allocations on
ADA-mandated complementary paratransit services, and
the law also calls for special paratransit pilot
projects in
For official information on New Freedom and
other federal transit programs, visit the FTA "SAFETEA-LU" web
page, at http://www.fta.dot.gov/17003_ENG_HTML.htm.