[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4367 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4367

 To alter requirements relating to recommendations for funding by the 
  Federal Transit Administration of fixed guideway projects, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 16, 2009

  Mr. Ellison (for himself and Mr. DeFazio) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To alter requirements relating to recommendations for funding by the 
  Federal Transit Administration of fixed guideway projects, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Transportation Equity Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) According to the National Surface Transportation Policy 
        and Revenue Study Commission, approximately 80 percent of the 
        population of the United States lives in metropolitan areas, 
        with over 60 percent of the population living in areas with at 
        least 1,000,000 individuals.
            (2) Over 85 percent of the critical transportation 
        infrastructure of the United States is in metropolitan areas.
            (3) Metropolitan areas are most often comprised of several 
        counties, cities, suburbs, and towns with commuting ties to an 
        urban core.
            (4) According to the United States census, almost 50 
        percent of the 100 largest cities in the United States have 
        predominantly minority populations, while suburbs are comprised 
        of predominately Caucasian populations.
            (5) Throughout the United States, public transportation 
        users are disproportionately minorities with low to moderate 
        incomes. Overall, public transit users are 45 percent 
        Caucasian, 31 percent African-American, and 18 percent Latino.
            (6) In urban areas, African-Americans and Latinos comprise 
        54 percent of public transportation users, including 62 percent 
        of bus users, 35 percent of subway users, and 29 percent of 
        commuter rail users.
            (7) Just 7 percent of Caucasian households do not own a 
        car, while 24 percent of African-American households, 17 
        percent of Latino households, and 13 percent of Asian-American 
        households do not own a car.
            (8) Public transit provides affordable transportation 
        choices and has the demonstrated ability to reduce out-of-
        pocket housing and transportation expenses for a household with 
        access to transportation choices within .5 miles of the 
        household.
            (9) The main criteria used by the Federal Transit 
        Administration to make determinations with respect to providing 
        Federal New Starts funding for a public transit project, known 
        as the cost-effectiveness index, has major limitations, 
        including limitations that negatively impact the ability of 
        transit projects serving minorities in urban areas to 
        effectively compete for funding.
            (10) The primary calculation of the cost-effectiveness 
        index attempts to quantify the dollar value of a single benefit 
        to users of Federal New Starts projects, travel time saved 
        compared to a baseline project, while ignoring other important 
        benefits.
            (11) The cost-effectiveness index relies solely on travel 
        demand models oriented toward highway commuter trips. The 
        models fail to accurately capture transit ridership by non-
        commuters and by individuals making non-highway oriented trips, 
        including trips made by pedestrians and cyclists. Because 
        minority, low-income, and urban residents make up a larger 
        share of non-commuter and non-highway oriented trips, the cost-
        effectiveness index undercounts these individuals and places a 
        reduced value on the time saved by the non-highway and non-
        commuter trips of these individuals.
            (12) The bias against urban transit users has caused some 
        minority communities to file lawsuits against the Federal 
        Transit Administration.
            (13) The Federal Transit Administration should end its 
        reliance on the cost-effectiveness index because of the 
        disproportionate negative impact of the index on minority and 
        urban communities.

SEC. 3. ADJUSTMENTS.

    The adjustments made in the Federal Transit Administrator's Dear 
Colleague letter of April 29, 2005, to require a ``medium'' for the 
cost-effectiveness rating, in order for fixed guideway projects to be 
recommended for funding by the Federal Transit Administration, shall 
not apply to any project evaluated under subsection (d) or (e) of 
section 5309 of title 49, United States Code.
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