# Presentation: 767223

## American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(ARRA)February 13, 2009

## Purposes Of Legislation 

- Maintain and create jobs
- Build and repair infrastructure
- Infuse cash into cash strapped state programs
- Encourage flow of money into the economy through tax cuts and other incentives for individuals and organizations

## What Transit Will Look Like

| Program | Final Bill |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Urban Formula  | $5.97 B |  (incl. funds allocated through Sec 5340) |
| Non-Urban Formula |   $766 M | (incl. funds allocated through Sec 5340) |
| Fixed Guideway Modernization Formula |   $742 M |  |
| New Starts / Small Starts | $742 M |  |
| Tribal Grants | $17 M |  |
| Energy Program [new prog] | $100 |  |
| Multimodal Discretionary Funds [new prog] | [$1.500B] |  |
| Administration / Oversight
 | $64 M |  |
| Total (Transit Only) | $8.4 Billion |  |

## Discretionary Transit Programs 

**Major Capital Investments ($0.742B)****‏**** - **Allocate funds to existing FFGA’s or priority ready-to-go projects under construction
**Tribal Transit ($17M)****‏**** - **Competitive solicitation and selection‏
**New Energy Program ($100M) - **Competitive solicitation and selection; will require development of new procedures and criteria.

## Key Provisions

- No waiver of FTA program requirements (planning/NEPA/Buy America/13(c))
- 100% Federal share, except new starts
- Capital expenses _*only*_* *are eligible (preventive maintenance is eligible)
- Cannot commingle FTA Chapter 53 Program/Economic Recovery Funds in Same Grant
- Funds not obligated within time frames will be taken back and reallocated

## How You Can Be Ready!

- Projects must be in approved STIP/TIP; NEPA completed or completion imminent
- May include estimated funding for fiscal constraint purposes
- Must meet conformity requirements in non attainment and maintenance areas
- Work to refine project description and budgets for early submission to DOL
- Identify procurement strategy

## ARRA Challenges

**Obligation Window **- 180 Day and 1 Year time frames for obligating funds.‏
**Redistribution Provisions** - Recovery and redistribution of funds not obligated after 180 Days and 1 Year
**Reporting Requirements** - New, numerous periodic reporting requirements at much higher level of detail than normal. FTA Seeking to minimize manual reporting for grantees
*Jobs, contracts, and projects are not collected by FTA.*
*Definitions and measurement methods unsettled. *
*Periodic reporting to ****http://www.recovery.gov/***

## ARRA Challenges

**New Discretionary Energy Program –**execution of new discretionary programs.  FTA will establish and announce solicitation, evaluation, award, and oversight approach.
**Small Tribal Discretionary Program **- Timely obligation of $17 M in tribal funds (competitive solicitation and selection)
**Significant Grant Increase** - Approximately 1,240 additional grants in FY 09 (44% increase over FY 08)‏
**Oversight** – Increased oversight role with an increased caseload of active projects; including 100 percent federally funded projects.

## FTA Economic Recovery Support to Date

**Grant Systems Updates** - Change grant-making systems and processes for new funding and reporting requirements with Continuing Resolution resources underway
**Apportionment & Guidance **- Apportion funds and publish external and internal execution guidance underway‏.  Issued upon enactment.
**Process Streamlining** – Will allow early assignment of grant numbers to facilitate simultaneous reviews by DOT and DOL
**FTA Recovery Website** - Robust Website devoted to ARRA Q’s and A’s (updated weekly) _[http://fta.dot.gov/economicrecovery](http://fta.dot.gov/economicrecovery)_
**Increased Outreach **- Ongoing outreach to grantees and stakeholder groups
-   *Please contact your FTA Regional Office with your questions as soon as possible

## QUESTIONS?

- _[http://](http://fta.dot.gov/economicrecovery)__[fta.dot.gov/economicrecovery](http://fta.dot.gov/economicrecovery)_
- Contact the FTA Regional Office closest to you,
- _[http://www.fta.dot.gov/regional_offices.html](http://www.fta.dot.gov/regional_offices.html)_