July 25, 2002

The Honorable Max Baucus
Chairman
Senate Committee on Finance
SD-219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6200

Dear Chairman Baucus:

I write on behalf of the more than 1,400 public and private member organizations of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) regarding legislation we understand from your staff you are planning to introduce that would reauthorize the federal transit program.

We appreciate your support of the federal transit program and your willingness to share your ideas with us. Public transportation plays a key role in providing a balanced surface transportation system and affords tens of millions of Americans critical choices in their daily mobility needs. The federal investments made available by Congress in TEA 21 are paying off in a significant way: public transportation ridership is up over 22 % over the past six years, and is at the highest levels in more than forty years - before the founding of the federal transit program.

While we appreciate your efforts regarding the federal transit program, we are concerned about certain aspects of your legislative proposal. APTA recognizes the importance of public transportation to rural and smaller communities; an APTA Reauthorization Task Force is developing proposals to address their special investment needs within the context of the existing program. We understand in this regard that your bill in effect would add state minimum allocation provisions to certain programs of the federal transit program.

In our view, the current transit program, which distributes funds on the basis of ridership, service, need and population factors, should be continued without major changes to its overall structure. The program, which permits additional federal resources to flow to those communities and states that invest in public transportation, responds to critical transportation needs across the country. It offers access to jobs, reduces congestion and pollution, and provides a lifeline for those with few transportation alternatives - older Americans, persons with disabilities and others.

As we noted when the state minimum allocation issue came up during the consideration of TEA 21, the existing structure for the allocation of federal transit funds is a remarkable achievement, tailoring a needs-based program to federal policy priorities with regard to equity, efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility, and a multi-modal approach to mobility, air quality and energy issues. It is a complex structure, and justifably so. But once its intricacies are understood, it is easy to see why it makes so much sense - and why changing it without detailed study and analysis entails so much risk.

In short, we firmly believe that changes in the distribution of federal transit assistance should be based upon identified needs. APTA will strongly oppose any efforts that would allocate federal transit funds on the basis of state minimum allocations. We do recognize the special investment needs of rural and smaller areas, and would be pleased to work with you and the Senate Banking Committee in developing provisions that would address those special needs in the context of the existing federal transit program. In that regard, APTA and its colleagues in the transportation community already are advocating for substantial increased federal investment in the next transit and highway reauthorization bill to address the critical need for additional transportation infrastructure resources around the country.

Sincerely yours,

William W. Millar
President

WWM/cbo