[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 224 (Wednesday, November 21, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65635-65636]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-22766]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

[Docket No: FTA-2007-0012]


National Transit Database: Strike Adjustments for Urbanized Area 
Apportionments

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of New Policy on Strike Adjustments for Urbanized Area 
Formula Grant Apportionment Data.

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SUMMARY: This notice provides interested parties with the opportunity 
to comment on changes to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) 
National Transit Database (NTD) policy on strike adjustments. On March 
12, 2007, FTA provided notice to NTD reporters that it was changing its 
policy on strikes, to permit transit agencies to request an adjustment 
to their NTD data that are used in the apportionment of Urbanized Area 
Formula Grants to offset the effect of strikes, retroactive to the 2005 
Report Year. FTA invites the public to comment on this policy change.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 21, 2007. FTA 
will consider comments filed after this date to the extent practicable.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket ID Number 
FTA-2007-0012] at the Federal eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments
    Fax: 202-493-2251.
    Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Instructions: When submitting comments, you must use docket number 
FTA-2007-0012. This will ensure that your comment is placed in the 
correct docket. If you submit comments by mail, you should submit two 
copies and include the above docket number. Note that all comments 
received will be posted, without change, to http://www.regulations.gov 
including any personal identifying information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program issues, John D. Giorgis, 
Office of Budget and Policy, (202) 366-5430 (telephone); (202) 366-7989 
(fax); or [email protected] (e-mail). For legal issues, Richard 
Wong, Office of the

[[Page 65636]]

Chief Counsel, (202) 366-0675 (telephone); (202) 366-3809 (fax); or 
[email protected] (e-mail).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit 
Administration's (FTA's) primary database for statistics on the transit 
industry. Congress established the NTD to ``help meet the needs of * * 
* the public for information on which to base public transportation 
service planning * * * '' (49 U.S.C 5335). Currently, over 650 transit 
agencies in urbanized areas report to the NTD through an Internet-based 
reporting system. Each year, performance data from these submissions 
are used to apportion over $4 billion of FTA funds under the Urbanized 
Area Formula Grants Program. These data are also used in the annual 
National Transit Summaries and Trends report, the biennial Conditions 
and Performance Report to Congress, and in meeting FTA's obligations 
under the Government Performance and Results Act.
    For many years, it was FTA's policy to not adjust performance data 
submitted to the NTD to offset the effect of strikes. On March 12, 
2007, FTA provided notice to NTD reporters that it was changing its 
policy on strikes, to permit transit agencies to request an adjustment 
to their NTD data that are used in the apportionment of Urbanized Area 
Formula Program Funds to offset the effect of strikes, retroactive to 
the 2005 Report Year. An internal review in FTA found that this policy 
had not been subject to public notice-and-comment at that time. 
Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5334(l), FTA now invites comments on this change.

II. Proposed Policy Change

    FTA proposes to allow urbanized area transit agencies to request 
that their NTD data submissions be adjusted to offset the effects of 
strikes for purposes of the apportionment of Urbanized Area Formula 
Program Grants. Requesting transit agencies must provide FTA with 
documentation for the duration of the strike. FTA will then use the 
transit agency's NTD submissions to project performance data for the 
time period in question. These projections would then be added to the 
transit agency's NTD submission in the data sets used by FTA for the 
calculation of the apportionments of Urbanized Area Formula Program 
Grants (Section 5307 and Section 5309 Grants). The NTD data in all 
publicly-available data sets and data products would remain unadjusted, 
and would reflect the actual NTD submission for the agency.
    FTA proposes this policy change because the Section 5307 and 
Section 5309 Grant Programs are fundamentally designed to support the 
capital needs of transit agencies in urbanized areas. As such, various 
performance data are used to approximate the relative capital needs of 
the various urbanized areas. These capital needs are unaffected by 
strikes, even though strikes may produce a substantial decrease in the 
performance data for an urbanized area.
    Further, FTA proposes to make this policy retroactive to the FY 
2005 Report Year, to allow urbanized areas that were negatively 
impacted by strikes in the 2005 and 2006 Report Years in the formula 
apportionment to avail themselves of this policy.

    Issued in Washington, DC, this 15th day of November 2007.
James S. Simpson,
Administrator.
 [FR Doc. E7-22766 Filed 11-20-07; 8:45 am]
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