Rep. Napolitano Secures Major Victories for California in FAST Act

(Washington, DC) Today, Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-El Monte) applauded House passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), a bipartisan, long-term transportation bill that will create family-wage jobs, rebuild and replace the nation’s aging infrastructure, and boost the economy. The FAST Act passed by a vote of 359 to 65.

“This very thorough, very bipartisan jobs bill will boost American manufacturing and provide much needed certainty for long-term infrastructure planning,” Napolitano said. “It will greatly improve the commute of my constituents, enhance transportation of goods to market, and increase transportation safety and air quality throughout our region. I have been honored to serve on the Conference Committee, thanks to Leader Pelosi’s appointment, on behalf of the San Gabriel Valley, and we thank our transportation stakeholders whose input will not only help California, but constituencies across our nation.”

The FAST Act is a five-year, fully paid-for surface transportation reauthorization of federal highway, transit, highway safety, motor carrier safety, hazardous materials, and passenger rail programs. The bill provides long-term certainty for states and local governments, strengthens Buy America provisions that create jobs and boost American manufacturing, and increases funding for freight projects, public transit, Amtrak and transportation alternatives.

As a conferee to the FAST Act House and Senate Conference Committee, Napolitano was able to secure major victories for California, which will receive over $26 billion to fix crumbling roads, bridges, and transit systems:

Local Control - Increased Local Suballocation of Transportation Funding
Increases percentage of funds that flow directly to local regions (instead of the State) within the Surface Transportation Program (STP) from the current 50% to 55% (1% per year). This issue was supported by CAL COG and local CA Transportation agencies.

Transit Funding Increases
Provides $13 billion over 5 years for the state of good repair transit formula program. These funds are distributed to state and local governments for repairs and upgrading of rail and bus rapid transit systems. This is a 20% increase over current funding. The bill provides $3.7 billion over 5 years for bus and bus facilities and sets aside $1.5 billion for a competitive bus grant program. This is a 75% increase over current funding. California Transit agencies strongly supported increased transit funding.

Allowing Paratransit Coordinated Fare Structures to Continue – Los Angeles County Issue
Allows Access Services, the paratransit provider of Los Angeles County to continue using a tiered, distance-based coordinated fare system. For over 20 years, Access Services has had a DOT approved tiered fare structure that averages all the fares of 44 transit agencies into 2 fares. For riders traveling under 20 miles the fare is $2.75 and for riders traveling over 20 miles the fare is $3.50 (these paratransit fares are dramatically lower than the rest of the country). DOT was going to require Access Services to change their fare structure by Jan. 1, 2016 based on confusing formulas for each individualized trip a disabled customer takes. 95% of the public comments from the ADA community strongly opposed this change. This provision will allow Access to continue operating with their current tiered fare structure.

Freight Programs
Creates two funded freight programs. The first is a Formula Freight program funded at $6.3 billion over 5 years, which is allocated to the states. The second is a Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Competitive grant program funded at $4.5 billion over 5 years that state and local governments can apply for.

Creating these funded freight programs was big priority of California Transportation agencies including Caltrans, California Association of Councils of Governments, League of CA Cities, Metropolitan Transportation Commission of the SF Bay Area, Southern California Association of Governments, San Diego Area Association of Governments, L.A. Metro, and Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

In addition, language was included that many CA Transportation agencies care about to make local transportation agencies (such as JPA’s) eligible recipients of grant funds and to address local environmental impacts of freight movement.

Railway Highway Grade Crossing Program
Maintains the current railway-highway grade crossing program and increases funding by $5 million/year to $245 million in FY20. California Transportation agencies, including the Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority in my district strongly support this program because safety issues around highway rail grade crossings are a big concern in our state.

Positive Train Control Grants
Provides $199 million for positive train control grants that commuter railroads can apply for. This was a big priority of Metrolink as they are currently developing and implementing positive train control safety systems.

WIFIA FIX Included
Fixes a problem with the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program from WRRDA 14 that prohibited local water agencies from combining tax exempt debt (i.e. municipal bonds) with WIFIA loans. This Conference Report changes that and allows water agencies to use municipal bonds (which are a major source of their revenue) as the local match to federal financing provided by the WIFIA. This fix to WIFIA was strongly supported by CA water agencies including ACWA and CASA.

A full summary of key issues for California included in the Conference Report on the FAST Act can be viewed here.

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