II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1144 

To improve transit services, including in rural States. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 21, 2009 

Mr. JOHNSON (for himself, Mr. TESTER, and Mr. CRAPO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To improve transit services, including in rural States. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Transit Im5 provement and Flexibility Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FORMULA GRANTS FOR OTHER THAN URBANIZED 

7 AREAS. 

8 Section 5311(c)(2) of title 49, United States Code, 

9 is amended— 

10 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘20 per11 cent’’ and inserting ‘‘25 percent’’; and 


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1 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘80 per2 cent’’ and inserting ‘‘75 percent’’. 

3 SEC. 3. FLEXIBLE USE OF ELDERLY AND DISABLED FUND4 ING. 

5 Section 5310 of title 49, United States Code, is 

6 amended by— 

7 (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the 

8 following: 

9 ‘‘(5) OPERATING COSTS.—A State may use not 

10 more than 25 percent of the amounts apportioned to 

11 the State under this section for operating costs of 

12 equipment and facilities that are or have been fund13 ed in whole or part under this section.’’; and 

14 (2) in subsection (c)— 

15 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (2) and 

16 (3) as paragraphs (3) and (4), respectively; and 

17 (B) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 

18 following: 

19 ‘‘(2) OPERATING ASSISTANCE.— 

20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

21 subparagraph (B), a grant made under this sec22 tion for operating assistance may not exceed 50 

23 percent of the net operating costs of the 

24 project, as determined by the Secretary. 


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1 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—A State described in 

2 section 120(b) of title 23 shall receive a Gov3 ernment share of the net operating costs equal 

4 to 62.5 percent of the Government share pro5 vided for under paragraph (1)(B).’’. 

6 SEC. 4. PILOT PROGRAM FOR TRANSIT CENTERS IN SMALL7 ER CITIES AND TOWNS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 53 of title 49, United 

9 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 5311 

10 the following: 

11 ‘‘§ 5311a. Pilot program for transit centers in smaller 

12 cities and towns 

13 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a 

14 program (referred to in this section as the ‘program’) of 

15 grants to eligible States for the purpose of establishing 

16 transit centers in urbanized areas with a population of less 

17 than 200,000 and in areas other than urbanized areas. 

18 Such transit centers may include multimodal transpor19 tation centers that include transit centers. 

20 ‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the program is to 

21 facilitate the development of transit service in areas that, 

22 historically, may not have received adequate attention to 

23 the development of transit service by providing facilities 

24 that have the potential to be transformational with respect 


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1 to the provision of improved transit service in a commu2 nity. 

3 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

4 ‘‘(1) the term ‘eligible State’ means a State 

5 with a population density of less than 100 persons 

6 per square mile of land area, based on the most re7 cent decennial census at the time an application is 

8 filed; and 

9 ‘‘(2) the definitions of ‘recipient’ and ‘sub10 recipient’ in section 5311(a) shall apply. 

11 ‘‘(d) PROCEDURES.— 

12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop 

13 administrative procedures and requirements for the 

14 implementation of this section, including any appli15 cation procedures, and may pattern such procedures 

16 and requirements after requirements applicable to 

17 discretionary bus grants under section 5309, but 

18 shall streamline such processes and limit require19 ments to the maximum extent possible, to facilitate 

20 prompt implementation of the program and to mini21 mize the regulatory burden on grant recipients and 

22 subrecipients. 

23 ‘‘(2) DEVELOPMENT.—The Secretary shall de24 velop proposed procedures under this subsection and 

25 publish them in the Federal Register for comment 


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1 within 60 days of the date of enactment of this sec2 tion. Final procedures shall be adopted within 60 

3 days of the close of said comment period. 

4 ‘‘(e) DISTRIBUTION.—In distributing funds pursuant 

5 to this section— 

6 ‘‘(1) the Secretary shall, prior to the completion 

7 of fiscal year 2012, award grants to establish at 

8 least one such center in each eligible State, provided 

9 that satisfactory applications have been filed from 

10 each eligible State in a timely manner to enable such 

11 distribution; and 

12 ‘‘(2) prior to the completion of fiscal year 2015, 

13 shall award grants to establish at least 2 such cen14 ters in each eligible State, provided that satisfactory 

15 applications have been filed from each eligible State 

16 in a timely manner to enable such distribution. 

17 ‘‘(f) ADMINISTRATION COSTS.—A recipient may use 

18 not more than 10 percent of amounts awarded under this 

19 section for a project to administer, plan, and provide tech20 nical assistance for that project funded under this section. 

21 A recipient may allocate to a subrecipient all or part of 

22 the amount the recipient may use under this subsection 

23 to administer, plan, and provide technical assistance for 

24 a project. 


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1 ‘‘(g) ELIGIBLE EXPENSES AND GOVERNMENT

2 SHARE.—Except for administrative expenses authorized 

3 under subsection (f), grants under this program shall be 

4 only for capital expenses, including buildings, facilities for 

5 the maintenance and repair of buses and other transit ve6 hicles, off street transit vehicle stop space and transit vehi7 cle parking space, passenger seating areas, and other cap8 ital expenditures as the Secretary may determine appro9 priate. The Government share of capital costs under this 

10 section shall be 100 percent.’’. 

11 (b) FUNDING.—From the Mass Transit Account of 

12 the Highway Trust Fund there shall be made available 

13 to carry out the program established pursuant to section 

14 5311a of title 49, United States Code, $25,000,000 for 

15 fiscal year 2010 and $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 

16 2011 through 2015. All such amounts are to remain avail17 able until expended. 

Æ 


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