In developing transportation related issues and proposals to bring forward for consideration by TWIC, staff receives input from the Board of Supervisors (BOS), references the County's adopted Legislative Platforms, coordinates with our legislative advocates, partner agencies and organizations, and consults with the Committee itself.
This report includes four sections, 1: LOCAL, 2: REGIONAL, 3: STATE, and 4: FEDERAL.
1. LOCAL
No report in August.
2. REGIONAL
No report in August.
3. STATE
Mr. Watts is unable to attend the August Committee meeting, attached is his latest written update, numerous grant and funding announcements, and a legislation tracking table.
4. FEDERAL
MTC staff provided a write up of the draft Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as introduced in the Senate. The full document is attached to this report, a brief summary (also provided by MTC staff) is immediately below:
Short Summary
We estimate that the bill would provide about $4.5 billion in “guaranteed” funding for the Bay Area via the highway and transit formula funds that MTC distributes. We also expect that the Bay Area/Bay Area projects could receive a share of the state’s $4.5 billion in bridge repair funds and dedicated resources for EV charging and resilience projects. Perhaps the most unique/unprecedented element of the deal would on the discretionary grant side (funding that USDOT would distribute on a competitive basis).
In addition to huge dollar amounts—more than $100 billion in HTF & upfront appropriations for grant programs of interest—the the focus of the grant programs reflects many of the Plan Bay Area 2050 priorities and in general the selection criteria appears Bay Area/large metro-friendly. To put the new discretionary funds in context, under the FAST Act we were effectively limited to the $12 billion Capital Investment Grant program as a federal funding source for the region’s megaprojects. That limitation was three-fold: 1) total dollar amount for other funding programs, 2) grant criteria that made it hard for our transit/climate/intercity rail priorities to compete for funds and 3) our share of national grant awards dropped significantly after the 2016 administration change.
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