NYC transit advocates press Jeffries and Schumer to scrap House transportation bill that cuts transit aid

New York transit advocates want the city's two most powerful Democrats in Congress to kill a Republican-written transportation bill before it can cut money the MTA counts on, amNY reported Thursday.

What the letter asks

Riders Alliance, Transportation Alternatives and the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, among other groups, sent the letter to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Brooklynites expected to become House speaker and Senate majority leader in January. It urges them to block H.R. 8870, the "Build America 250" Act, which the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved earlier this year, and to "start over" on a new bill in 2027.

The groups say the bill would cut guaranteed transit funding that flows to the MTA, eliminate guaranteed funding for Amtrak, shift money toward highways and cut the Safe Streets for All grants that pay for street safety projects such as bike lanes. Riders Alliance's Danny Pearlstein called it a "culture war bill" in an interview with amNY.

What the bill would change

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act raised federal transit funding by about two-thirds, to roughly $21.4 billion a year, and that law has now expired, The Pew Charitable Trusts noted in an analysis last week. Pew said the House bill would end some competitive grants, including the Low or No Emission bus program, and would put passenger rail money (about $12.9 billion a year) through the annual appropriations process instead of guaranteeing it in advance. That makes long-term capital planning harder for agencies like the MTA.

The Dec. 11 deadline

The more urgent fight is next month. The current extension of the 2021 law expires on Dec. 11, and the letter asks Jeffries and Schumer not to accept a lame-duck extension that leaves out advance appropriations. The MTA warned in a policy memo last week that such an extension would amount to a $265 million cut in its fiscal 2027 formula funds, amNY reported. Republicans still control both chambers until January, which limits what Democrats can win in that vote.

Schumer told amNY that any transit cuts in the next surface transportation bill are a "nonstarter" and said he would fight to keep the infrastructure law's funding levels. Jeffries' office did not respond to amNY's request for comment.