On Monday, June 7, the Bus Coalition Board met to discuss and ultimately strongly endorse the House introduced INVEST Act which is set to be marked up in Committee. The House INVEST Act is a historic bill that increases investment in transit overall by 59% and the Bus and Bus Facility program by 250%!

The INVEST in America Act will help transit systems across the country address aging and shrinking fleets by making critical investments, including $109 billion for public transportation overall and over $11 billion for bus and bus facility infrastructure. The bill meets TBC’s two major objectives:

1. Restore bus transit investment to the historic 40-40-20 ratio. Buses historically received 20% of the transit capital investment ratio. Today, buses only receive 14% and INVEST will get us to 22% in FY23; and
2. Significantly increase funding for the bus competitive grant program for both buses and facility improvements to allow for lumpy capital purchases.

In particular, the bill does the following:

• The Bus and Bus Facilities Program increases 250% from $808 million in FY21 to $2.83 billion in FY26
• The 5339a formula increases from $464 million to $1.3 billion by FY26
• Creates a new 5339a subformula to replace older buses ( ~ $190 million/year)
• Modifies the 5339b program to focus on Bus Facilities and Bus Expansion grants (~ $378 million/year)
• Significantly increases the 5339c Zero Emission Bus competitive grant program (~ $828 million/year)

Click here to see our  attached letter of endorsement that we sent to the T&I Committee on June 9th.