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 

JUNE 3, 2009 

Committee discharged; referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

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— 


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1 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘20 per2 cent’’ and inserting ‘‘25 percent’’; and 

3 (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘80 per4 cent’’ and inserting ‘‘75 percent’’. 

5 SEC. 3. FLEXIBLE USE OF ELDERLY AND DISABLED FUND6 ING. 

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

8 amended by— 

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

10 following: 

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

12 more than 25 percent of the amounts apportioned to 

13 the State under this section for operating costs of 

14 equipment and facilities that are or have been fund15 ed in whole or part under this section.’’; and 

16 (2) in subsection (c)— 

17 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (2) and 

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

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

20 following: 

21 ‘‘(2) OPERATING ASSISTANCE.— 

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

23 subparagraph (B), a grant made under this sec24 tion for operating assistance may not exceed 50 


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1 percent of the net operating costs of the 

2 project, as determined by the Secretary. 

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

4 section 120(b) of title 23 shall receive a Gov5 ernment share of the net operating costs equal 

6 to 62.5 percent of the Government share pro7 vided for under paragraph (1)(B).’’. 

8 SEC. 4. PILOT PROGRAM FOR TRANSIT CENTERS IN SMALL9 ER CITIES AND TOWNS. 

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

11 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 5311 

12 the following: 

13 ‘‘§ 5311a. Pilot program for transit centers in smaller 

14 cities and towns 

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

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

17 grants to eligible States for the purpose of establishing 

18 transit centers in urbanized areas with a population of less 

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

20 Such transit centers may include multimodal transpor21 tation centers that include transit centers. 

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

23 facilitate the development of transit service in areas that, 

24 historically, may not have received adequate attention to 

25 the development of transit service by providing facilities 


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1 that have the potential to be transformational with respect 

2 to the provision of improved transit service in a commu3 nity. 

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

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

6 with a population density of less than 100 persons 

7 per square mile of land area, based on the most re8 cent decennial census at the time an application is 

9 filed; and 

10 ‘‘(2) the definitions of ‘recipient’ and ‘sub11 recipient’ in section 5311(a) shall apply. 

12 ‘‘(d) PROCEDURES.— 

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

14 administrative procedures and requirements for the 

15 implementation of this section, including any appli16 cation procedures, and may pattern such procedures 

17 and requirements after requirements applicable to 

18 discretionary bus grants under section 5309, but 

19 shall streamline such processes and limit require20 ments to the maximum extent possible, to facilitate 

21 prompt implementation of the program and to mini22 mize the regulatory burden on grant recipients and 

23 subrecipients. 

24 ‘‘(2) DEVELOPMENT.—The Secretary shall de25 velop proposed procedures under this subsection and 


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1 publish them in the Federal Register for comment 

2 within 60 days of the date of enactment of this sec3 tion. Final procedures shall be adopted within 60 

4 days of the close of said comment period. 

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

6 to this section— 

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

8 of fiscal year 2012, award grants to establish at 

9 least one such center in each eligible State, provided 

10 that satisfactory applications have been filed from 

11 each eligible State in a timely manner to enable such 

12 distribution; and 

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

14 shall award grants to establish at least 2 such cen15 ters in each eligible State, provided that satisfactory 

16 applications have been filed from each eligible State 

17 in a timely manner to enable such distribution. 

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

19 not more than 10 percent of amounts awarded under this 

20 section for a project to administer, plan, and provide tech21 nical assistance for that project funded under this section. 

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

23 the amount the recipient may use under this subsection 

24 to administer, plan, and provide technical assistance for 

25 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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