Overview
Each year, Congress passes legislation which, when signed by the President, appropriates funds for the Department of Transportation and related agencies. After that legislation is enacted, FTA publishes a Notice in the Federal Register that provides an overview of the apportionments and allocations based on these funds for the various Federal Transit Administration programs as well as statements of policy and guidance on public transit administration. This page contains the current and prior fiscal year apportionments for each grant program. Additional past years’ apportionments are available for viewing on the Archived Apportionments page.
FTA's public transportation assistance program authorization is provided by Chapter 53 of Title 49, United States Code. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub L. 114-94, December 4, 2015) made certain changes to Chapter 53 and provided contract authority and general fund authorizations for FTA’s public transportation assistance programs for five years (Fiscal Years 2016 through 2020).
FTA's full-year appropriations, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Pub. L. 114-113 (Dec. 18, 2014), was enacted in December 2015, giving FTA appropriated resources for FY 2016 for administrative expenses, Capital Investment Grants (CIG), and grants to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. The Appropriations Act of 2016 also provides a full fiscal year obligation limitation of $9,347,604,043 of contract authority for FTA programs funded from the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund during this fiscal year.