Hearing

Witness List:

• Mr. Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., Chief Executive Officer, Jacksonville Transportation Authority; on behalf of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) | Witness Testimony
• Ms. Barbara K. Cline, Executive Director, Prairie Hills Transit; on behalf of the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) | Witness Testimony
• Mr. Matthew Booterbaugh, Chief Executive Officer, RATP Dev USA; on behalf of the North American Transit Alliance (NATA) | Witness Testimony
• Mr. Baruch Feigenbaum, Senior Managing Director of Transportation Policy, Reason Foundation | Witness Testimony
• Mr. Greg Regan, President, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) | Witness Testimony

Opening remarks, submitted for the record, of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO):

Today’s hearing focuses on our nation’s public transportation programs that fall under the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). We continue to receive information about what programs are working and those that aren’t, as we consider where we should be directing our investments to facilitate the safe and efficient movement of people and goods.

I’d like to thank Secretary Duffy for his leadership and commitment to addressing the crime happening on some of the nation’s public transit systems. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen ridership numbers struggle to recover and crime levels skyrocket.

No place has that been more apparent than Kansas City, where their “free fare” experiment has gone horribly wrong. Instead of making transit affordable and reliable, it made transit unsustainable and downright dangerous.

Drivers and passengers shouldn’t fear for their lives every time they step on a bus, yet that’s exactly what’s happened in Kansas City. In my district, we’ve seen crime skyrocket at and around bus stops since this “free fare” nonsense started. And it’s exactly why we’ve seen them reverse course and end this horrible experiment-gone-awry.

Without addressing this growing concern, we continue to put other riders, drivers, operators, and workers in danger.

Opening remarks, as prepared, of Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer (R-NC):

Today’s hearing examines key issues concerning our nation’s public transportation programs as the Subcommittee works to develop and enact an on-time, multi-year surface transportation bill.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) provides funding and technical assistance to public transportation systems across the nation to move people safely and connect them to workplaces, airports, doctors’ appointments, and more. From buses and street cars to ferries and rail systems, transit systems connect our communities and have the potential to drive greater economic opportunities, especially in rural areas.

Ensuring that transit services reflect the needs of the communities served, while providing such services efficiently and safely, is a goal that I believe all lawmakers share. Unfortunately, it is no secret that pandemic era restrictions and work-from-home policies made already declining ridership rates that much worse, resulting in a historic decline in overall fare revenue collections for transit systems of all sizes across the nation. In response, Congress provided FTA with nearly $70 billion in supplemental funding to cover short-term budget gaps, mainly for operating expenses and labor costs. Shortly after, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law in November 2021 and provided $108.2 billion for public transportation through fiscal year 2026.

IIJA alone authorized a 77 percent increase in federal funds for FTA compared to the prior authorization, the FAST Act. When you combine both IIJA and the supplemental COVID funding, nearly $180 billion federal taxpayer dollars have been directed to public transportation systems since 2020.

Despite this significant investment, ridership today hovers around 79 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Concerningly, crime has become more rampant on several transit systems, endangering passengers and transit workers alike. The traveling public deserves better and so do the men and women who work around the clock to transport riders safely to their destinations. Congress must work to hold recipients of federal dollars accountable and ensure that public transportation services are reliable, safe, and maintained to a certain standard.

Thankfully, the Trump Administration has taken federal investments in our transit systems seriously and is directing certain legacy systems to reduce crime and fare evasion to improve security for passengers and workers. I commend Secretary Duffy for taking a strong look at this and conducting much needed oversight of these systems. I look forward to working with the Trump Administration to advance common-sense reforms to improve the ridership experience.

Now with the structural deficits our nation is running, we can no longer afford to throw money at issues and hope to see change, and this includes public transportation systems. We have an opportunity in the next surface bill to ensure that public transportation systems have the flexibilities they need to deliver high quality services.

Each community is unique in its ridership needs and its delivery of services. And while some systems have reduced or eliminated fares in hopes of increasing their ridership rates, others have pursued innovative strategies to increase efficiency, such as reorienting services and routes, employing microtransit, or expanding use of contracted services.

It is always helpful to define what success is, and it begs the question as to whether ridership is an appropriate measure to determine the health of a transit system given the variation of factors that apply.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about what they feel is working in the transit industry, and what challenges transit systems face that this subcommittee may need to address as we work to reauthorize our nation’s surface transportation programs.