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The Source for Public Transportation News and Analysis March 9, 2012
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Rogoff Discusses FTA’s 2012 Outlook
BY SUSAN R. PAISNER, Senior Managing Editor

As 2012 continues to unfold, Passenger Transport talked with Peter Rogoff, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), about New Starts rulemaking, the status of surface transportation reauthorization in Congress, President Obama’s budget, past achievements, and future plans.

The Purpose Behind New Starts Rulemaking
More than two years ago, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the elimination of the Bush administration rule that required funding to pass a very narrowly tailored cost-effectiveness index. When this policy change was announced, the idea was that DOT and its agencies would streamline their approach.

So the latest rulemaking, Rogoff said, was “to provide greater clarity to our stakeholders on how we are going to evaluate the benefits of New Starts projects in the future, and also to bring greater balance to our methods here. We want to look at these projects in terms of their entire impact, not just with a rigid adherence to a factor based solely on travel time savings.”

Also, under the prior rules, any new rail projects had to be compared to the “better bus alternative.” This, said Rogoff, resulted in examining alternative public transportation ideas regardless of whether a project sponsor was even contemplating a bus or other alternative. In fact, he said, “sometimes we would spend months arguing with the project sponsor about the details of the better bus alternative that no one had any intention of building.”

So, the intent is to streamline the application process so that projects can be deployed faster.

“Doing that helps us get to a decision more quickly,” Rogoff said, adding: “Also, we want to get out of the business of trying to design these projects from Washington, DC, and really try to fully understand the sponsor’s vision and the full array of benefits it’s going to provide to the community—both in mobility and economic development and benefits to the environment.”

The Status of Authorization
Rogoff continued: “A lot of our focus has been on the misguided budget proposals that the House put forward in H.R. 7—and we have been very outspoken on how the House plan would have sent our country backward, not forward. [Transportation] Secretary [Ray] LaHood has called it the worst piece of legislation he’s seen in 35 years in public service. The only reason I can’t say that is I’ve only been in public service for 25 years.”

He then asked rhetorically: How could such a proposal be put forward? His answer: “As transit professionals, we have allowed ourselves to be complacent for decades now in terms of making the case for transit’s appropriate role in a self-financing transportation bill. I’ve been involved in every reauthorization since the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), and while there have always been arguments about public transit’s percentage share, there never have been ones about zero percent.”

President Obama’s Budget
President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget lays out a clear and, according to Rogoff, “common sense” way to pay for a multi-year reauthorization bill. The administration proposes taking the savings found from scaling back operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and putting half that amount toward deficit reduction and the other half into financing a multi-year transportation bill.

So, what is the likelihood of its passing?

That approach to funding was proposed last year in the House for other purposes in the budget resolution. “We don’t know what’s currently being contemplated in the House right now … but as the House and Senate struggle to come up with a funding proposal for reauthorization, it will find its way to the table because we know it’s something the president will sign,” Rogoff said.

The House, he reiterated, has “an extraordinarily partisan process” while the Senate has a bipartisan process, “and that has played itself out in the proposals both bodies have put forth.”

Rogoff noted a clear need for another extension of the existing authorization legislation because he doesn’t think “that anyone is predicting we could finalize a multi-year comprehensive reauthorization bill in the next three and a half weeks.” FTA’s current public transit funding authority expires March 31.

He also said there must be some recognition that a number of states are about to let contracts for construction. “The economy should not have to tolerate a missed construction season,” he said, “given the criticality of keeping people at work and on jobs.”

So when asked if Congress might grant a couple more extensions and thus push a reauthorization bill until after the 2012 election, Rogoff stated that, with the president having clearly articulated the way to pay for this on a multi-year basis, “punting is not in the interest of the American public. What everyone wants—governors, mayors, state DOTs—is predictability and adequate funding—and that’s attainable under the president’s proposed budget.” But he cautioned that for that to happen, the process must be bipartisan, “level-headed,” and balanced.

Past Year’s Accomplishments
In FTA’s continuing effort to provide grantees with both clarity and consistency, Rogoff referenced the production of new draft guidance on both environmental justice and Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act. FTA signed a record number of Full Funding Grant Agreements (FFGAs) and, according to Rogoff, it “had some good success in doing our part to boost U.S. manufacturing,” citing a host of streetcar building projects.

Prior to this year, if a streetcar manufacturer wanted to buy block rail, it had to purchase it overseas. But through DOT’s and FTA’s efforts in support of “Buy America” regulations, a factory in Pennsylvania now produces a domestic alternative. In all, he said: “We are pretty proud of our accomplishments.”

Moving Forward
“Even in the absence of reauthorization,” Rogoff said, “we’re continuing to make progress on a lot of fronts.”

He said FTA will work to finalize its cost-effectiveness rule and will, once again, sign a record number of FFGAs this coming year.

“One of the critical reasons we need reauthorization to move forward,” he said, relates to proposed public transit safety legislation that will give FTA both the ability to put resources behind the state safety organization and repeal the prohibitions going back to 1964 that forbid the agency from issuing safety regulations of any kind. With this change, he said, “we can put forward some minimum common sense safety standards.”

Rogoff also wants to reduce substantially the amount of time it takes to begin a New Starts project. To effect this streamlining, however, requires changes in law. For example, right now applicants must perform one type of alternatives analysis for the FTA and a separate one under the National Environmental Policy Act. “We think that’s duplicative,” he said, adding: “We’d like to consolidate that. We’d like to consolidate the number of approval steps a New Starts project must go through in the FTA to reach a decision.”

Further, he’d like to give project sponsors with a good track record the ability to bypass some of those steps, but, he reminded, “all those require changes in law.”

Another reauthorization issue Rogoff discussed concerns operating assistance for struggling public transit agencies during particularly difficult economic circumstances. As the price of gas rises, so too does the cost to agencies.

“As the oil companies continue to jack up the gas price, agencies will face dramatically rising ridership again at a time when they don’t have the resources to meet the demand,” he said. “The administration has put forward one proposal for temporary and targeted operating assistance, but none will happen without reauthorization.”
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