The transportation community may have a new authorization law in place following the passage of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), but given that it is a two-year law, efforts are already underway to develop recommendations to Congress for the next bill.

APTA recently established a new task force aimed at evaluating MAP-21 and how it addresses the needs of public transit agencies across the country, and to come up with new legislative recommendations for Congress to consider when they tackle the daunting task of reauthorizing federal public transit and highway programs.

APTA Legislative Committee Chairman Jeff Nelson approached APTA Chair Flora Castillo and APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy not long after MAP-21 was signed into law and suggested that work on the next bill needed to begin almost immediately to meet a tight timeline: the new law expires on Sept. 30, 2014. Setting the industry on a productive course for the next bill was a clear priority for both the APTA Legislative Committee and the new APTA chair, and Castillo directed Nelson to establish a new Authorization Task Force under the auspices of the Legislative Committee.

Recently, the new task force began to take shape as a group of prominent APTA Members were appointed as co-chairs:

* Nuria Fernandez, chief operating officer, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority;

* Carolyn Flowers, chief executive officer, Charlotte Area Transit System;

* Carl Sedoryk, general manager/CEO, Monterey-Salinas Transit;

* Sharon Greene, principal, Sharon Greene and Associates; and

* Randall Chrisman, board member, Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

In addition to the co-chairs entrusted with the process, a broad group from the APTA membership—providing a diverse and thorough representation of all types and sizes of APTA members—was invited to participate in what is certain to be an important deliberative process.

The task force will report its recommendations to the Legislative Committee, which will review and ultimately submit its final recommendations to the APTA Board of Directors for its review and approval. The new task force plans to hold its first meeting on Dec. 7.

While the Authorization Task Force will target the end of 2013 for having new recommendations approved by the APTA Board of Directors, a separate effort is also underway to produce consensus views for the industry on rail safety and passenger rail legislation that expires in September 2013. The Rail Safety Improvement Act (RSIA) and the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) were jointly signed into law in 2008 and both require reauthorization next year.

To meet the earlier timeline, Nelson tasked the APTA Commuter and Intercity Rail Legislative Subcommittee with developing APTA’s principles and recommendations for new legislation on these issues. The subcommittee, chaired by Stan Feinsod, passenger rail consultant, and Joe Giulietti, executive director, South Florida Regional Transportation Authority/Tri-Rail, has a membership that represents a broad swath of the passenger rail industry. The first rail reauthorization call was scheduled for the last week in November as Passenger Transport went to press.

Nuria Fernandez	Carolyn Flowers	Carl Sedoryk	Sharon Greene	Randall Chrisman

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