[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 242 (Tuesday, December 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Page 102248]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-29616]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
[FTA-2021-0010]
Notice of Availability of Final Policy Guidance for the Capital
Investment Grants Program
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of
Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of availability of final policy guidance for the Capital
Investment Grants program.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is making available
the agency's final policy guidance for the Capital Investment Grants
(CIG) program. This version amends FTA's Initial CIG Policy Guidance
published in January 2023, and incorporates feedback FTA received from
the public comment on its proposed Policy Guidance published in the
Federal Register in April 2024. The final guidance has been placed in
the docket and posted on the FTA website. The policy guidance
complements FTA's regulations that govern the CIG program.
DATES: This final policy guidance is effective January 16, 2025.
Companion documents to the CIG Policy Guidance such as reporting
instructions, CIG reporting templates, and standard cost category
worksheets will be updated on the FTA website prior to the effective
date.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Day, FTA Office of Planning
and Environment, telephone (202) 366-5159 or [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This final policy guidance document contains
binding obligations, which 49 U.S.C. 5334(k) defines as ``a substantive
policy statement, rule, or guidance document issued by the Federal
Transit Administration that grants rights, imposes obligations,
produces significant effects on private interests, or effects a
significant change in existing policy.'' Under 49 U.S.C. 5334(k), FTA
may issue binding obligations if it follows notice and comment
rulemaking procedures under 5 U.S.C. 553. Prior to making the
amendments announced today, FTA followed such procedures. The policy
guidance that FTA periodically issues for the CIG program complements
the FTA regulations that govern the CIG program, codified at 49 CFR
part 611. The regulations set forth the process that grant applicants
must follow to be considered for discretionary funding under the CIG
program, and the procedures and criteria FTA uses to rate and evaluate
projects to determine their eligibility for discretionary CIG program
funding. The policy guidance provides a greater level of detail about
the methods FTA uses and the sequential steps a sponsor must follow in
developing a project.
Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5309(g)(5), FTA is required to publish policy
guidance on the CIG program each time the agency makes significant
changes to the review and evaluation process and criteria, but not less
frequently than once every two years. In April 2024, FTA published a
notice in the Federal Register (89 FR 24086), seeking comment on
proposed changes to FTA's Initial CIG Policy Guidance issued in January
2023 (88 FR 2166), which were informed by feedback FTA received in
response to its Request for Information published in the Federal
Register in July 2021 (86 FR 37402). The amended Final CIG program
policy guidance is being made available today on the agency's public
website at https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grant-programs/capital-investments/capital-investment-grants-program-regulations-guidance, and
in the docket at https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FTA-2021-0010/.
Additionally, FTA's response to the comments received on the proposed
changes are available in the docket.
FTA is exempting certain projects from following the new amended
Final CIG Policy Guidance. Specifically, projects already in the
Project Development or Engineering phases of the CIG program as of the
date of publication of this notice that have been evaluated and rated
at least once by FTA under the January 2023 CIG Policy Guidance and
that meet the requirements for receipt of a CIG construction grant
award by the end of calendar year 2025 are exempt from following the
new amended Final CIG Policy Guidance. These projects may continue to
follow the January 2023 Initial CIG Policy Guidance. To demonstrate a
project has met the requirements for receipt of a construction grant
award by the end of calendar year 2025, the project sponsor must submit
a complete construction grant application to FTA no later than
September 1, 2025. If a project sponsor desires to have an exempt
project evaluated and rated under the new amended Final CIG Policy
Guidance rather than the prior January 2023 Initial CIG Policy
Guidance, the sponsor may notify FTA of this desire.
Veronica Vanterpool,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2024-29616 Filed 12-16-24; 8:45 am]
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