Opinion ID: 535995
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Structure of the Act

Text: 32 Congress' carefully chosen design for allocating safety responsibility in Sec. 22 should not be interpreted to confer any broader safety authority upon UMTA than is expressly provided, given the federalism values which permeate the entire structure of the UMT Act. These values are evident throughout the Findings and purposes sections of the Act, where Congress described the purposes of the Act in the following terms: 33 (1) to assist in the development of improved mass transportation ..., with the cooperation of mass transportation companies both public and private; 34 (2) to encourage the planning and establishment of areawide urban mass transportation systems ..., with the cooperation of mass transportation companies both public and private; and 35 (3) to provide assistance to State and local governments and their instrumentalities in financing such systems, to be operated by public or private mass transportation companies as determined by local needs. 36 49 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1601(b) (emphasis added). While Congress clearly had efficient, safe, and convenient transportation as one of its goals, it sought to achieve that goal by creating a partnership which permits the local community, through Federal financial assistance, to exercise the initiative necessary to satisfy its urban mass transportation requirements. 49 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1601a; see also H.R.Rep. No. 204, 88th Cong., 2d Sess. 5 (1964), reprinted in U.S.Code Cong & Ad.News 2569, 2573 ([T]he leadership and financial assistance of the Federal Government is needed now to encourage solutions that are generally applicable to urban areas regardless of size, and for which those areas themselves will have the primary choice and responsibility.). 37 This concern for federalism values, expressed throughout the passage of the original bill, became the driving force behind the 1982 amendments. H.R.Rep. No. 555, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 37 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 3639. In the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982, Congress substantially revised UMTA's grant program to make its concerns about local transit authority autonomy even more explicit than they had been in prior versions of the Act. The 1982 Act shifted a substantial portion of UMTA's grant money to block grants, which would be distributed on a formula basis to states for their mass transit needs. See 49 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1607a. It provided increased flexibility enabling state and local officials to devise their own transportation programs to meet their unique, local needs. Block grant recipients need only present UMTA with a certification that they have complied with the terms and conditions of the grant. 8 Through such restructuring, Congress intended to turn much of the control still exercised at the federal level over to state and local governments. H.R.Rep. No. 555 at 37, reprinted in 1982 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News at 3675. 38 In contrast to the manner in which Congress designed Sec. 22, in those areas where Congress did delegate authority to UMTA to prescribe regulations for local transit authorities, it did so explicitly. In Sec. 1604(d)(2), for example, Congress required the Secretary to issue regulations as necessary to administer grants for the acquisition, construction, improvement, or operation of mass transit projects. Pursuant to that authority, UMTA adopted regulations setting out uniform technical specifications and certain other contractual provisions to be used by local governments in purchasing advanced design busses with UMTA grant funds, see 42 Fed.Reg. at 13,816 (1977), although mandatory use of these specifications has since been rescinded, see 47 Fed.Reg. at 44,457 (1982). See also 49 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1607(d) (requiring that grants or contracts awarded for long-range planning be made in accordance with criteria established by the Secretary) (emphasis added). 39 Similarly, in Sec. 1612(d), Congress explicitly provided for rulemaking procedures for the purpose of implementing Sec. 1612, requiring that recipients of mass transit funds provide special assistance to elderly and handicapped persons. 49 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1612(d). That subsection mandates that UMTA adopt regulations that would establish minimum criteria for the provision of those services. See Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) v. Skinner, 881 F.2d 1184 (3d Cir.1989) (detailing the somewhat tortuous history of the Department of Transportation's efforts to comply with Sec. 1612, and concluding that when Congress enacted Sec. 1612(d) in 1982, it sought 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). Clearly, had Congress wished UMTA to play a similarly active role in mass transportation safety, it would have expressed that desire in the same manner when amending Sec. 22 in the 1982 Act. It did not do so. 40 UMTA argues that evidence that Congress granted it rulemaking authority in these and other provisions of the Act supports its contention that it can act via rulemaking when it comes to safety matters. We agree with the Unions that the argument cuts the other way. As we have shown, on the few occasions when Congress intended to give UMTA broad rulemaking authority, vis-a-vis its grantees, it did so expressly. Unless and until Congress chooses to confer such authority to UMTA over safety matters, UMTA's uniform, national anti-drug program regulations do not represent a valid exercise of its statutory authority.