CTAA Response to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee BUILD America 250 Act

CTAA Executive Director Scott Bogren shared the following statement of support with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in response to the release of the Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act (BUILD America 250 Act).

On behalf of the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and our thousands of members across the country who provide vital transit services in rural, small-urban, and tribal communities, I am writing to express our support for the Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act (BUILD America 250 Act).

The introduction of this surface transportation reauthorization bill is a critical step in ensuring the continued growth and efficiency of the nation’s public transportation network. We appreciate the Committee’s extensive outreach over the past eighteen months and your willingness to adopt several key recommendations submitted by CTAA and our members. These provisions will directly improve the ability of smaller transit agencies to serve their passengers safely and efficiently.

CTAA looks forward to working with Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leadership, staff, and members during the upcoming markup process to ensure this essential legislation moves forward and is enacted ahead of the IIJA expiration. Thank you for your visionary leadership and for your commitment to a bipartisan, five-year surface transportation bill that moves people safely across America.

CTAA legislative staff, led by Scott Bogren, Chris Zeilinger, Meredith Bay-Tyack, and the CTAA Board of Directors Legislative Committee prepared the following outline, highlighting areas of the BUILD America 250 Act that CTAA is tracking closely as they align with CTAA’s 2026 Legislative Priorities.

Supporting Documents:

• T&I Press Release
• Full Text
• Section-by-Section summary (public transit begins on Page 20)
• 2026 CTAA Legislative Priorities

1. Continued and growing federal investment in transit through the Mass Transit Account

This bill uses the Mass Transit Account as the conduit to fund incrementally more dollars to the transit program. There’s an initial funding increase of 15 percent in the bill’s first year, and an increase of almost 2 percent in the years after.

2. Regulatory reform

• NTD reporting: The bill includes slight NTD reporting streamlining and calls for a GAO study and report on NTD data quality.
• Bus sales: The bill allows grantees to retain the full proceeds when selling assets for which there’s no remaining federal interest, as long as they can certify to the Secretary that such amounts will be used in a capital project under Sections 5307, 5308, 5310, or 5311.
• NEPA: FTA grantees can address NEPA compliance after having purchased land. Important NEPA categorical exclusions are included, too.
• Oversight and Reviews: The bill calls for streamlined FTA triennial reviews, providing for waivers from scheduled triennials among Sec 5307 recipients with favorable reviews.
• Procurement: The bill continues some current procurement practice pilot programs, which could lead to opportunities for simplification. It also expands eligibility for local government procurements.
• Drug/Alcohol Testing: USDOT would have to start allowing for hair-based testing of controlled substances in its drug testing regimes, once HHS has certified testing equipment and protocols.
• Spare Ratios: The bill prohibits FTA from issuing any sort of mandate or guidance concerning spare bus ratios in transit fleets

3. Federal share for transit projects

The bill creates a new feature, Section 5308, under which interested states and US DOT can agree to have their apportionments of state-managed FTA formula funds (parts of Sections 5307, 5310, 5339, and 5340, along with all of Section 5311) bundled up and delivered as annual block grants. All projects funded via these consolidated block grants come with an 80 percent federal share. This could extend the 80 percent match on operating funds to small urban operators, as well as rural and tribal agencies. Once in a state’s hands, it seems like the state gets to decide how to distribute funds among its small-urban, specialized, rural and intercity projects, including any bus or bus facility projects for these subrecipients’ benefits, irrespective of the line-item apportionment amounts.

4. Small Transit Intensive Cities (STIC)

The bill increases the set-aside in Section 5307 for STIC to 5 percent, starting in FY 2027 (the first year of this bill).

5. Continued funding for buses and bus facilities

• The bill authorizes a 50 percent jump in overall funding for buses and bus facilities from FY 2026 to FY 2027.
• Section 5339(a) “national distribution” of formula funds to states and possessions is increased to $6 million per year.
• After providing the national distribution from Section 5339(a), 38 percent is reserved for competitive bus, bus facility and ferry grants, and 62 percent is allocated by formula, with specific formula distributions to large-urban areas of more than 1 million population (50 percent of allocated funds); medium-urban areas with populations between 200,000 and 1 million (30 percent of allocated funds); small-urban areas with populations between 50,000 and 200,000 (15 percent of allocated funds); and rural areas with populations less than 50,000 (5 percent of allocated funds).
• Finally, although low- and no-emission bus and bus facility projects remain an eligible use of Section 5339 dollars, there is no longer a set-aside for low/no projects.

6. New emphasis on bus driver safety

The bill establishes a bus driver safety working group and requires driver compartment barriers for all newly built 30-foot and larger fixed-route buses beginning two years after the bill’s passage.

7. Funding Levels

• Section 5307 urban transit baseline authorization ($7.0 billion in FY 2026) jumps about 10 percent to $7.7 billion in 2027, then 1.5 to 2.0 percent annually thereafter
• Section 5310 elderly/disabled mobility ($407.0 million in 2026) also jumps about 10 percent to $447.3 million in 2027, then 1 to 2 percent annually thereafter
• Section 5311 rural transit baseline authorization ($959.6 million in 2026) jumps about 5 percent to $1.0 billion in 2027, then 1.5 to 2.0 percent annually thereafter
• Section 5340 growing/high-density states authorizations, which are an important supplement to most urban and a few rural apportionments, jump about 7.5 percent to $873.0 million in 2027, then just over 1 percent annually thereafter.