Public transit leaders joined together at the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) annual conference in Baltimore, Md., to discuss and express their concerns regarding the Trump Administration's FY18 budget proposal to phase out the Capital Improvement Grant (CIG) program.
The FY18 budget reflects a $928-million reduction in the CIG program and limits the requested $1.26 billion to projects that hold existing full funding grant agreements (FFGA). The budget says, "future investments in new transit projects would be funded by the localities that use the benefit from these localized projects." The administration justified the reduction and phase out of the CIG program by stating that "federal resources should be focused on making targeted investments that leverage private sector investment" and noted that "localities are better equipped to scale and design infrastructure investments needed for their communities."