[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 211 (Friday, October 31, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64875-64877]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-25942]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


Federal Fiscal Year 2015 Annual List of Certifications and 
Assurances for Federal Transit Administration Grants and Cooperative 
Agreements

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice announces the availability of the Federal 
Transportation Administration's (FTA) Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Annual List 
of Certifications and Assurances for FTA Grants and Cooperative 
Agreements, which can be found at FTA's Web site, http://www.fta.dot.gov. This notice provides a condensed list of the various 
pre-award Certifications and Assurances that may apply to an Applicant 
for FTA funding and its Project. This notice also describes both FTA's 
and the Applicant's responsibilities with respect to the Certifications 
and Assurances and highlights the differences between the FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances and those published for FY 2014. In 
addition, this notice also provides instructions on how and when to 
submit Certifications and Assurances for FY 2015. Each Applicant for 
FTA funding must submit the Certifications and Assurances that apply to 
it and the Project or Projects for which it seeks funding during FY 
2015. An Applicant typically acts through its certified or authorized 
representative (You). You, as the Applicant's Certified or Authorized 
Representative, must have the authority to sign the Applicant's 
Certifications and Assurances and to bind the Applicant's compliance 
with the Certifications and Assurances you select on its behalf.

DATES: Effective Date: These FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances are 
effective October 1, 2014, the first day of FY 2015.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The appropriate Regional or 
Metropolitan Office listed in this notice. For copies of related 
documents and information, see our Web site at http://www.fta.dot.gov 
or contact our Office of Administration at 202-366-4007.

Region 1: Boston

States served: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode 
Island and Vermont, Telephone # 617-494-2055

Region 2: New York

States served: New York, and New Jersey, Telephone # 212-668-2170

Region 3: Philadelphia

    States served: Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West 
Virginia, Telephone # 215-656-7100

Region 4: Atlanta

States served: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Territories served: Puerto Rico 
and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Telephone # 404-865-5600

Region 5: Chicago

States served: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and 
Wisconsin, Telephone # 312-353-2789

Region 6: Dallas/Ft. Worth

States served: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, 
Telephone # 817-978-0550

Region 7: Kansas City

    States served: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, Telephone # 
816-329-3920

Region 8: Denver

States served: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and 
Wyoming, Telephone # 720-963-3300

Region 9: San Francisco

    States served: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Territories 
served: Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, 
Telephone # 415-744-3133

Region 10: Seattle

States served: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; Telephone # 206-
220-7954

Chicago Metropolitan Office

Area served: Chicago Metropolitan Area; Telephone # 312-886-1616

Los Angeles Metropolitan Office

Area served: Los Angeles Metropolitan Area; Telephone # 213-202-3950

Lower Manhattan Recovery Office

Area served: Lower Manhattan; Telephone # 212-668-1770

New York Metropolitan Office

Area served: New York Metropolitan Area; Telephone # 212-668-2201

Philadelphia Metropolitan Office

Area served: Philadelphia Metropolitan Area; Telephone # 215-656-7070

Washington DC Metropolitan Office

Area served: Washington DC Metropolitan Area; Telephone # 202-219-3562/
202-219-3565

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

1. What are FTA's responsibilities?

    The second sentence of 49 U.S.C. 5323(n) states in pertinent part 
that, ``[t]he Secretary [of Transportation] shall publish annually a 
list of all certifications required under this chapter [49 U.S.C. 
chapter 53]. . . .'' The first sentence of 49 U.S.C. 5323(n) states 
that, ``[a] certification required under this chapter [53] and any 
additional certification or assurance required by law or regulation to 
be submitted to the Secretary [who delegated that authority to the 
Federal Transit Administrator] may be consolidated into a single 
document to be submitted annually as part of a grant application under 
this chapter [53].'' Therefore, FTA has grouped those certifications 
and assurances into the following twenty-four (24) groups:

Group 01. Required Certifications and Assurances for Each Applicant,
Group 02. Lobbying,
Group 03. Procurement and Procurement Systems,
Group 04. Private Sector Protections,
Group 05. Rolling Stock Reviews and Bus Testing,
Group 06. Demand Responsive Service,
Group 07. Intelligent Transportation Systems,
Group 08. Interest and Financing Costs and Acquisition of Capital 
Assets by Lease,
Group 09. Transit Asset Management Plan and Public Transportation 
Agency Safety Plan,
Group 10. Alcohol and Controlled Substances Testing,
Group 11. Fixed Guideway Capital Investment Grants Program (New 
Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity) and Capital Investment 
Program in Effect before MAP-21 Became Effective,
Group 12. State of Good Repair Program,
Group 13. Fixed Guideway Modernization Grant Program,
Group 14. Bus and Bus Facilities Formula Grants Program and Bus and 
Bus-Related Equipment and Facilities Grant Program (Discretionary),
Group 15. Urbanized Area Formula Grants Programs/Passenger Ferry 
Grants Program/Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) Formula Grant 
Program,
Group 16. Seniors/Elderly/Individuals With Disabilities Programs/New 
Freedom Program,

[[Page 64876]]

Group 17. Rural/Other Than Urbanized Areas/Appalachian Development/
Over-the-Road Bus Accessibility Programs,
Group 18. Tribal Transit Programs (Public Transportation on Indian 
Reservations Programs),
Group 19. Low or No Emission/Clean Fuels Grant Programs,
Group 20. Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks Program,
Group 21. State Safety Oversight Grant Program,
Group 22. Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program,
Group 23. Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program, and
Group 24. Infrastructure Finance Programs.

    Since 1995, FTA has consolidated the Certifications and Assurances 
required by law or regulation into a single document for publication in 
the Federal Register. To receive Federal funding appropriated or made 
available for the Grant, Cooperative Agreement, Loan, Loan Guarantee, 
and Line of Credit programs FTA administers, your Applicant must submit 
the annual Certifications and Assurances required for the type of 
funding it seeks.
    U.S. DOT's annual appropriations for part of FY 2015 have been 
included in the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015, Public Law 
113-164, September 19, 2014. As such, FTA is publishing its FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances now.
    These FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances supersede any 
Certifications and Assurances published in an earlier fiscal year or 
that may have appeared as illustrations in an FTA circular. After 
publication in the Federal Register, each Applicant must submit 
adequate FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances before FTA may award 
funding to support that Applicant's request for funding for its 
Project.

2. What is the legal effect of the Certifications and Assurances?

    a. Pre-Award Representations. Certifications and Assurances are 
pre-award representations typically required by Federal law or 
regulation that your Applicant must submit before FTA may provide 
Federal funding for its Project. In general, these FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances are effective October 1, 2014, except as 
FTA determines otherwise in writing. For FY 2015, however, certain 
Certifications and Assurances in effect prior to MAP-21 continue to 
apply to certain Projects and Project activities that are financed with 
funds appropriated or made available for FY 2012 or a previous fiscal 
year. Conversely, some Certifications and Assurances apply to both 
Programs funded by MAP-21 and Programs financed with funds appropriated 
or made available for FY 2012 or a previous fiscal year. Therefore, it 
is critically important that you know the fiscal year in which the 
funding awarded for your Applicant's Project was appropriated.
    Upon publication in the Federal Register, FTA may not award funding 
for your Applicant's Project until it submits sufficient FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances.
    b. Binding Commitment. Your Applicant must comply with any 
Certifications or Assurances you make on its behalf, irrespective of 
whether you remain your Applicant's authorized representative. When you 
submit its Certifications and Assurances to FTA, both you and your 
Applicant are agreeing to comply with those terms. For programs that 
require specific certifications, when the Certifications and Assurances 
that would apply under MAP-21 differ from the Certifications and 
Assurances that would apply in FY 2012 or a previous fiscal year, FTA 
continues to include both types in the single Group used to facilitate 
funding your Applicant's request(s).
    c. Length of Commitment. Your Applicant's FY 2015 Certifications 
and Assurances remain in effect until its Project is closed or the 
useful life of its Project property has expired, whichever is later. If 
your Applicant provides different Certifications and Assurances in a 
later fiscal year, the later Certifications and Assurances will usually 
apply to its Project, except as FTA determines otherwise in writing.
    d. Duration. You and your Applicant may use the FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances in Appendix A to support applications for 
FTA funding until FTA issues its FY 2016 Certifications and Assurances.
    e. The FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances Are Not a Complete 
List of Federal Requirements. FTA cautions that the FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances focus mainly on those representations 
that your Applicant is required to submit to FTA before FTA may award 
Federal funds for its Project. Consequently, these Certifications and 
Assurances do not include many other Federal requirements that will 
apply to your Applicant and its Project.
    f. Federal Requirements. In addition to the information in this 
notice and FTA's FY 2015 Apportionments Notice, FTA also strongly 
encourages you and your Applicant's staff and prospective and current 
Third Party Participants to review all Federal legislation, 
regulations, and guidance that apply to your Applicant's proposed 
Project and to them. The FY 2015 Master Agreement identifies many of 
those requirements and applicable guidance, and may be accessed at 
http://www.fta.dot.gov.
    g. Penalties for False or Fraudulent Statements. If you provide any 
false or fraudulent statement to the Federal Government on behalf of 
your Applicant or yourself, you may incur both Federal civil and 
criminal penalties. See:
    (1) The Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act of 1986, as amended, 31 
U.S.C. 3801 et seq.,
    (2) U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) regulations, 
``Program Fraud Civil Remedies,'' 49 CFR part 31, and
    (3) Section 5323(l)(1) of title 49, United States Code, which 
provides for Federal criminal penalties and termination of Federal 
funding should you provide, on behalf of your Applicant or yourself, a 
false or fraudulent certificate, submission, or statement in connection 
with the Federal transit program authorized by 49 U.S.C. chapter 53.

3. What are your responsibilities?

    a. Make Sure All Involved With Your Applicant's Project Understand 
the Federal Requirements That Will Apply to Your Applicant and its 
Project. FTA strongly advises you, as your Applicant's authorized 
representative, to read this notice and the Certifications and 
Assurances on the FTA Web site before selecting Certifications and 
Assurances on behalf of your Applicant. In addition to reading the 
information in this notice and on the FTA Web site, http://www.fta.dot.gov).
    FTA also advises you to read the information accompanying the 
apportionment tables when FTA publishes its FY 2015 Apportionment 
Notices.
    Your Applicant is responsible for compliance with all Federal 
requirements that apply to itself and its Project. Nevertheless, people 
and entities participating in your Applicant's Project, including 
Subrecipients, Third Party Contractors, and Third Party Sub-contractors 
(Third Party Participants) can seriously affect its ability to comply 
with those Federal requirements. Accordingly, all Third Party 
Participants involved in its Project need to know and should agree to 
comply with the Federal requirements that affect the Applicant's 
Project-related activities and themselves.
    b. Subrecipient and Other Third Party Participation. Except in 
limited circumstances when FTA has determined otherwise, your Applicant 
is ultimately responsible for compliance with all Certifications and 
Assurances that you select on its behalf, even though much of its 
Project will be carried out by Subrecipients or other

[[Page 64877]]

Third Party Participants. Therefore, FTA strongly recommends that you 
take appropriate measures to ensure that Subrecipients and other Third 
Party Participants in your Applicant's Project do not take actions that 
will cause your Applicant to violate the representations made in its 
Certifications and Assurances.
    c. Submit Your Applicant's Certifications and Assurances. You must 
submit all Groups of the FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances that 
apply to your Applicant and the Projects for which it seeks FTA funding 
in FY 2015. For your convenience, FTA recommends that you submit all 
twenty-four (24) Groups of Certifications and Assurances. Those 
provisions of the various Certifications and Assurances that do not 
apply to your Applicant or its Project will not be enforced.
    d. Obtain the Affirmation of Your Applicant's Attorney. You must 
obtain an affirmation of your Applicant's Attorney, signed in FY 2015, 
stating that your Applicant has sufficient authority under its State 
and local law to certify its compliance with the FY 2015 Certifications 
and Assurances that you have selected on its behalf. Your Applicant's 
Attorney must sign this affirmation during FY 2015. An Affirmation of 
its Attorney dated in a previous fiscal year is insufficient, unless 
FTA expressly determines otherwise in writing.
    e. When To Submit.
    (1) If your Applicant is applying for funding under any of the 
discretionary capital programs (e.g., New Starts, Small Starts, or Core 
Capacity Improvement), FTA expects to receive your Applicant's FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances within ninety (90) days from the date of 
this publication or soon after the submittal of your Applicant's 
request for FY 2015 funding. Likewise, if your Applicant is a current 
FTA recipient with an active Project funded with FTA capital or formula 
funds, FTA expects to receive your Applicant's FY 2015 Certifications 
and Assurances within ninety (90) days from the date of this 
publication or soon after the submittal of your Applicant's request for 
FY 2015 funding.
    (2) If your Applicant seeks funding from an FTA program other than 
a formula program or a discretionary capital program, e.g., for a 
Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment Project, FTA 
expects to receive your Applicant's FY 2015 Certifications and 
Assurances with the submission of its Application for FTA funding or 
soon thereafter.

4. Where are FTA's FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances?

    a. FTA's FY 2015 Certifications and Assurances are available at 
FTA's Web site, http://www.fta.dot.gov, and
    b. TEAM-Web, FTA's electronic award and management system, http://ftateamweb.fta.dot.gov, at the ``Cert's & Assurances'' tab of the 
``View/Modify Recipients'' page in the ``Recipients'' option.

5. What changes have been made since FY 2014?

    a. In the Preface, FTA is clarifying that these Certifications and 
Assurances apply to an Applicant for a Loan, Loan Guarantee, and Line 
of Credit as well as to an Applicant for a Grant or Cooperative 
Agreement,
    b. In the Preface, FTA is asking that each member of a team, 
consortium, joint venture, or partnership to identify itself and its 
role in the Project as a Recipient, Subrecipient, or Third Party 
Contractor,
    c. In the Preface, we have added a reference to the Highway and 
Transportation Funding Act of 2014, Public Law 113-159, August 8, 2014, 
the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015, Public Law 113-164, 
September 19, 2014, and other Appropriations Acts or Continuing 
Resolutions funding the Department of Transportation during Fiscal Year 
2015,
    d. In Group 01.A, Section 2, FTA has clarified that ``Agreements'' 
means Charter Service Agreement and School Bus Agreement, and
    e. In Group 01A, Section 3, FTA is clarifying that these 
Certifications and Assurances apply to an Applicant for a Loan, Loan 
Guarantee, and Line of Credit as well as to an Applicant for a Grant or 
Cooperative Agreement.

6. How do you submit the Certifications and Assurances?

    a. Electronic Submission. Except in rare circumstances and if 
permitted by FTA, you must submit your Applicant's FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances in TEAM-Web. To submit the Certifications 
and Assurances, you must be registered in TEAM-Web.
    The TEAM-Web ``Recipients'' option at the ``Cert's & Assurances'' 
tab of the ``View/Modify Recipients'' page contains fields for 
individually selecting among the 24 Groups of Certifications and 
Assurances that apply to your Applicant and also a designated field for 
selecting all 24 Groups, of which only the requirements that apply to 
you or your Applicant will be enforced.
    The ``Cert's & Assurances'' tab has a field for you to enter your 
personal identification number (PIN), which is your electronic 
signature. There is also a field for the Attorney's PIN, affirming your 
Applicant's legal authority to make and comply with the Certifications 
and Assurances you have selected on its behalf. You may enter your PIN 
in place of the Attorney's PIN, provided that your Applicant has on 
file a similar affirmation that has been written, dated, and signed by 
its Attorney in FY 2015.
    b. Paper Submission. You may submit your Applicant's FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances on paper only if you cannot submit them 
electronically in TEAM-Web and FTA agrees to accept your Applicant's 
Signature Pages in a typewritten hard copy. If you cannot submit your 
Applicant's Certifications and Assurances electronically and if FTA so 
permits, you must submit the Signature Pages at the end of the 
Certifications and Assurances indicating the Groups of Certifications 
and Assurances your Applicant is providing. You may place a single mark 
in the designated space to signify your Applicant's agreement to comply 
with all Groups of Certifications and Assurances to the extent that 
they apply to it, or select the specific Groups of Certifications and 
Assurances that apply to it and its Projects.
    You must enter your signature on the last Signature Page and 
provide an Affirmation by your Applicant's Attorney concerning your 
Applicant's legal capacity to make and comply with the FY 2015 
Certifications and Assurances selected on its behalf. You may enter 
your signature in place of the Attorney's signature in the Affirmation 
by Applicant's Attorney part of the Signature Page, provided that your 
Applicant has on file a similar affirmation, written, dated, and signed 
by its Attorney in FY 2015.
    For more information, you may contact the appropriate FTA Regional 
or Metropolitan Office.

    Authority.  49 U.S.C. chapter 53; the Moving Ahead for Progress 
in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) Pub. L. 112-141, June 6, 2012; 
other Federal laws administered by FTA; U.S. DOT and FTA regulations 
codified or to be codified in Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations; 
and FTA Circulars.

Therese W. McMillan,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2014-25942 Filed 10-30-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P