[Federal Register: November 21, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 224)]
[Notices]
[Page 65635-65636]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr21no07-111]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
[Docket No: FTA-2007-0012]
National Transit Database: Strike Adjustments for Urbanized Area
Apportionments
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of New Policy on Strike Adjustments for Urbanized Area
Formula Grant Apportionment Data.
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SUMMARY: This notice provides interested parties with the opportunity
to comment on changes to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA)
National Transit Database (NTD) policy on strike adjustments. On March
12, 2007, FTA provided notice to NTD reporters that it was changing its
policy on strikes, to permit transit agencies to request an adjustment
to their NTD data that are used in the apportionment of Urbanized Area
Formula Grants to offset the effect of strikes, retroactive to the 2005
Report Year. FTA invites the public to comment on this policy change.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 21, 2007. FTA
will consider comments filed after this date to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket ID Number
FTA-2007-0012] at the Federal eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: When submitting comments, you must use docket number
FTA-2007-0012. This will ensure that your comment is placed in the
correct docket. If you submit comments by mail, you should submit two
copies and include the above docket number. Note that all comments
received will be posted, without change, to http://www.regulations.gov
including any personal identifying information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program issues, John D. Giorgis,
Office of Budget and Policy, (202) 366-5430 (telephone); (202) 366-7989
(fax); or john.giorgis@dot.gov (e-mail). For legal issues, Richard
Wong, Office of the
[[Page 65636]]
Chief Counsel, (202) 366-0675 (telephone); (202) 366-3809 (fax); or
richard.wong@dot.gov (e-mail).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit
Administration's (FTA's) primary database for statistics on the transit
industry. Congress established the NTD to ``help meet the needs of * *
* the public for information on which to base public transportation
service planning * * * '' (49 U.S.C 5335). Currently, over 650 transit
agencies in urbanized areas report to the NTD through an Internet-based
reporting system. Each year, performance data from these submissions
are used to apportion over $4 billion of FTA funds under the Urbanized
Area Formula Grants Program. These data are also used in the annual
National Transit Summaries and Trends report, the biennial Conditions
and Performance Report to Congress, and in meeting FTA's obligations
under the Government Performance and Results Act.
For many years, it was FTA's policy to not adjust performance data
submitted to the NTD to offset the effect of strikes. On March 12,
2007, FTA provided notice to NTD reporters that it was changing its
policy on strikes, to permit transit agencies to request an adjustment
to their NTD data that are used in the apportionment of Urbanized Area
Formula Program Funds to offset the effect of strikes, retroactive to
the 2005 Report Year. An internal review in FTA found that this policy
had not been subject to public notice-and-comment at that time.
Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5334(l), FTA now invites comments on this change.
II. Proposed Policy Change
FTA proposes to allow urbanized area transit agencies to request
that their NTD data submissions be adjusted to offset the effects of
strikes for purposes of the apportionment of Urbanized Area Formula
Program Grants. Requesting transit agencies must provide FTA with
documentation for the duration of the strike. FTA will then use the
transit agency's NTD submissions to project performance data for the
time period in question. These projections would then be added to the
transit agency's NTD submission in the data sets used by FTA for the
calculation of the apportionments of Urbanized Area Formula Program
Grants (Section 5307 and Section 5309 Grants). The NTD data in all
publicly-available data sets and data products would remain unadjusted,
and would reflect the actual NTD submission for the agency.
FTA proposes this policy change because the Section 5307 and
Section 5309 Grant Programs are fundamentally designed to support the
capital needs of transit agencies in urbanized areas. As such, various
performance data are used to approximate the relative capital needs of
the various urbanized areas. These capital needs are unaffected by
strikes, even though strikes may produce a substantial decrease in the
performance data for an urbanized area.
Further, FTA proposes to make this policy retroactive to the FY
2005 Report Year, to allow urbanized areas that were negatively
impacted by strikes in the 2005 and 2006 Report Years in the formula
apportionment to avail themselves of this policy.
Issued in Washington, DC, this 15th day of November 2007.
James S. Simpson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. E7-22766 Filed 11-20-07; 8:45 am]
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