Last week, The House Transportation and Housing Appropriations Subcommittee released the FY20 THUD Appropriations bill and it includes an additional $483 million plus-up for the Bus and Bus Facility Program!

The 5339b competitive pot received a $389 million plus-up and includes language stipulating that each grant award must be at least $1 million. The 5339c competitive low/no program received a plus-up of $94 million with language stipulating not less than $1.5 million per award.

The total plus-up is $483 million, which is higher than our final plus-ups in FY18 or FY19. Obviously, Members and staff on the Appropriations Committee have heard our message about the importance of these competitive grants and lumpy needs.

If these numbers stick in a final bill (we still have a long way to go), the competitive program would be funded at $678 million and Low/No at $149 million. See funding levels with FAST Act baseline in chart below:

We want to thank Bill Carpenter, Ed Redfern and Donna DeMartino for coming to DC in April and making a strong push for additional funding. We also want to thank all the TBC Members who reached out to their congressional delegation and pushed for additional FY20 bus funding. Your engagement is critical and our message is being heard!

This is a great start, but we have a long way to go. The Senate still needs to mark up its version of the bill and we need to redouble our efforts in the Senate to ensure this number sticks. We will be working over the coming weeks to continue our advocacy push for additional bus funding. In the meantime, great work everyone!

If you have any questions, please contact Joel Rubin at joel@buscoalition.com or Ed Redfern at ed@buscoalition.com.