49 U.S.C. Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program

This information collection (IC) request is for a three-year extension associated with a revision of a currently approved collection under OMB control number 2132-0502 “49 U.S.C. Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program.” The revision is a new policy implemented by FTA that all grants of $2 million or less awarded to recipients located in urbanized areas over 200,000 in population, may be reported annually instead of quarterly, unless a specific risk is identified for that grant. FTA’s new policy reduces the number of Federal Financial Reports from 3,120 in the 2016 IC submission to 2,746 in the current submission (12% decrease in reporting requirements). There has been no other programmatic changes to this program since 2016. The response to the collection is required to obtain or retain a benefit, as the information is submitted to FTA to provide financial assistance to State and local governments and public transportation authorities for capital projects such as planning, engineering, design and evaluation of transit projects and other technical transportation-related studies; capital investments in bus and bus-related activities such as replacement, overhaul and rebuilding of buses, crime prevention and security equipment and construction of maintenance and passenger facilities; and capital investments in new and existing fixed guideway systems including rolling stock, overhaul and rebuilding of vehicles, track, signals, communications, and computer hardware and software. In addition, associated transit improvements and certain expenses associated with mobility management programs are eligible under the program. All preventive maintenance and some Americans with Disabilities Act complementary paratransit service costs are considered capital costs. Section 5307 also includes funding for passenger ferry system in urbanized areas. The recipients must apply to receive federal funds and then provide various reports (milestone and financial reports) as necessary to ensure the proper and timely expenditure of federal funds within the scope of the approved project. The applications and milestones are submitted on a yearly basis but financial milestone reports are submitted on a quarterly basis (unless they are under the $2 million threshold stated above).

The latest form for 49 U.S.C. Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program expires 2023-08-31 and can be found here.

49 USC Sections 5309 & 5307 Capital Assistance Programs

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Transportation - Ground Transportation