Opinion ID: 527543
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982

Text: 59 Section 317(c) of STAA, 49 U.S.C.A.App. Sec. 1612(d), was enacted to require a more active federal role in the development and enforcement of substantive standards for serving the handicapped in federally-assisted mass transit programs. The statute gives the Secretary extremely broad discretion to adopt appropriate standards for handicapped services. On its face section 317(c) requires only that the Secretary establish minimum criteria for serving the handicapped and does not specify any substantive standard mandating mainline accessibility or otherwise constraining the Secretary's discretion. See 49 U.S.C.A.App. Sec. 1612(d). 60 The legislative history of STAA also demonstrates that Congress did not unambiguously mandate mainstreaming. While this history contains some statements supporting mainstreaming, it also contains contrary statements. Senator Cranston, a co-sponsor of the provision adding section 317(c), stated that we are not imposing an enormously costly burden for transit systems or requiring an immediate return to the controversial, tough [mainline accessibility regulations] in place before July of 1981. 128 Cong.Rec. at 32,643. 61 Congress was apparently unlikely to approve any effort to compel accessible mainline transit. Senator Cranston stated, when he proposed Sec. 317(c), that 62 [u]ltimately and ideally, I believe that transit systems should be fully accessible to handicapped and elderly persons, including those who must use wheelchairs. However, I recognize that it is not now feasible to gain approval of legislation that would provide a full guarantee of eventual accessibility. 63 128 Cong.Rec. at 30,824. Indeed, the Secretary's 1979 regulations had set out precisely such a policy and were met with severe criticism in Congress. In 1980, both houses of Congress passed bills that would have compelled the Secretary to abandon the compulsory mainline accessibility policy of the 1979 regulations and required the Secretary to permit a local option. See, e.g., S. 2720, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., Sec. 118; 126 Cong.Rec. 32,197-98 (1980). In the course of considering this legislation, several members of Congress expressed a clear preference for local discretion and paratransit alternatives to mainline accessibility. 64 Senator Exon, for example, stated that [t]he adoption by the Congress of a local option exemption to section 504 would remedy what I consider the very unfortunate rules and regulations of the Department of Transportation regarding the issue of so-called accessible buses versus special transportation services for the handicapped. 126 Cong.Rec. 16,696 (1980). Similarly, Senator McClure noted that paratransit alternatives offered a feasible and, in some cases, more effective means of providing services than accessible bus service. 126 Cong.Rec. 16,698-16,700 (1980). While these local option bills were not enacted into permanent law, the terms of the Senate provisions were incorporated by reference into DOT's 1981 appropriations legislation, thereby barring the Secretary from using any funds to compel bus accessibility in fiscal year 1981. See Pub.L. No. 96-400, Sec. 324, 94 Stat. 1699 (1980). 65 There is nothing in the legislative history that suggests that in enacting section 317(c) of STAA, Congress intended to reverse itself and to foreclose paratransit alternatives to bus accessibility. Indeed, Senator Riegle, a co-sponsor of the provision, suggested that the Secretary could adopt standards governing services that are not in the form of accessible buses or other equipment serving the general public. 128 Cong.Rec. 32,642-43. Similarly, Senator Cranston noted that rather than alter federal policy on accessibility, the measure would still retain[ ] the philosophy of granting broad discretion to local systems in the design and implementation of their programs. Id. at 32,644. We conclude that both the statutory language and the legislative history demonstrate that section 317(c) vests the Secretary with the discretion to permit each community to develop paratransit systems or other alternatives to mainline accessibility. 66 Congress adopted section 317(c) of STAA in 1982 to prod DOT into action following the 1981 remand of the regulations in APTA v. Lewis. Accordingly, DOT was directed to promulgate final regulations establishing minimum criteria for the provision of transportation services to the disabled. DOT, in formulating the regulations before us today, found it reasonable to interpret section 317(c) as not requiring that transportation services for the handicapped be the same as or comparable to that provided the general public. 48 Fed.Reg. 40,685 (1983). The district court, relying on its basic premise that mainstreaming has not been legislated, agreed. So do we.