[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 166 (Thursday, August 27, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52083-52084]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-21242]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


FTA Supplemental Fiscal Year 2015 Apportionments, Allocations, 
and Program Information

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), U.S. Department of 
Transportation.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) annually publishes 
one or more notices to apportion funds appropriated by law. This notice 
is the third notice which announces the remaining apportionment for 
programs funded with fiscal year (FY) 2015 contract authority.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information about this 
notice contact Kimberly Sledge, Director, Office of Transit Programs, 
at (202) 366-2053. Please contact the appropriate FTA regional office 
for any specific requests for information or technical assistance. A 
list of FTA regional offices and contact information is available on 
the FTA Web site at http://www.fta.dot.gov.

 I. Overview

    The FTA's public transportation assistance program authorization, 
the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), expired 
September 30, 2014. Since that time, Congress has enacted short-term 
extensions allowing FTA to continue its current programs. The most 
recent extension, the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, 
Public Law 114-41, (July 31, 2015), continues MAP-21 through October 
29, 2015. This extension allows FTA to make available contract 
authority for transit assistance programs through September 30, 2015.
    The FTA's full-year appropriations, the Consolidated and Further 
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, Public Law 113-235 (Dec. 16, 
2014), hereinafter ``Appropriations Act, 2015'' was enacted in December 
2014, giving FTA appropriated resources for FY 2015 for Administrative 
Expenses, Capital Investment Grants (CIG), Research and Technical 
Assistance and Training programs, and Grants to the Washington 
Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. The Appropriations Act, 
2015 also provides a full fiscal year obligation limitation of 
$8,595,000,000 of contract authority for FTA programs funded from the 
Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund during this fiscal year.
    On July 23, 2015, FTA published an apportionments notice that 
apportioned approximately 10/12ths of the FY 2015 authorized contract 
authority among potential program recipients based on contract 
authority that was available from June 1, 2015 through July 31, 2015 
(80 FR 141). That notice also provided relevant information about the 
FY 2015 funding available and end-of-year grant management and 
application procedures. A copy of that notice and accompanying tables 
can be found on the FTA Web site at http://www.fta.dot.gov/apportionments.
    This document provides notice to stakeholders that FTA is 
apportioning the full-year FY 2015 authorized contract authority--
October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015--among potential program 
recipients according to statutory formulas in 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53. 
This document also allocates most of the remaining CIG funding to 
projects with existing Full Funding Agreements (FFGA) or projects 
recommended to receive an FFGA. The FTA has posted tables displaying 
the funds available to eligible states and urbanized areas on FTA's Web 
site at http://www.fta.dot.gov/apportionments.
    The formula apportionment tables that allocate the full year of FY 
2015 appropriated funds can be found at http://www.fta.dot.gov/apportionments. In addition, the National Transit Database (NTD) and 
Census Data used in the funding formulas can be found at http://www.fta.dot.gov/apportionments.

II. Grant Management and Application Procedures

    A. The Transportation Electronic Awards Management (TEAM) system 
will close on Friday, September 25, 2015. Grants and cooperative 
agreements must have all applicable assurances and certifications 
completed so that funds can be awarded by the deadline. Funding that 
has not been awarded in an application by September 25, 2015 will not 
be migrated into the new FTA financial system, TrAMS. Instead, these 
applications will need to be re-created when TrAMS deploys in FY 2016. 
This applies to new

[[Page 52084]]

applications as well as amendments to existing awards.
    B. Recipients of open American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 
grants should be aware that, as a matter of law, all remaining ARRA 
funds MUST be disbursed from grants by the end of the 5th fiscal year 
(FY) after funds were required to be obligated. (See 31 U.S.C. 1552.) 
For FTA ARRA projects, that requirement takes affect at the end of FY 
2015. Accordingly, once FTA's ECHO grant payment system closes for 
disbursement payments on September 25, 2015, all remaining unliquidated 
funds within FTA ARRA funded grants will no longer be available to the 
grantee, will be deobligated from the grant, and returned to the U.S. 
Department of the Treasury. Even if a grantee has incurred costs or 
disbursed funds prior to the close of ECHO, if the grantee has not 
actually drawn down the funds by 2:00 p.m. EDT on September 25, 2015 
FTA would be unable to reimburse the grantee. Therefore, grantees with 
open ARRA grants must ensure project activities are completed and all 
funds are drawdown by 2:00 p.m. EDT on September 25, 2015. For ARRA 
TIGER I projects, the same requirement will be in effect for the end of 
FY 2016.

Therese W. McMillan,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2015-21242 Filed 8-26-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE P