Why It Matters

The federal public transportation program authorization expires on September 30, and a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report examining the BUILD America 250 Act, a surface transportation reauthorization bill introduced in the House in May, reveals choices about the future of transit funding, workforce capacity, and investment priorities. The Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget request for transit represents a 22% reduction in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding, cutting approximately $4.8 billion from current levels.

The Big Picture

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provided approximately $21.4 billion annually for public transportation over fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2026, marking a roughly 67% increase compared with the prior authorization. The BUILD America 250 Act would provide no multiyear advance appropriations.

Section 3006 would create a voluntary Consolidated State Block Grant Program for transit formula funding, though urbanized areas with 3.5 million or more people or multistate areas with 200,000 or more people would remain excluded. The measure would eliminate dedicated Low-No funding, reversing an IIJA increase that boosted the Low and No Emission Vehicle program from $55 million annually to $1.1 billion annually.

FTA staffing dropped from 781 full-time equivalents (FTE) in fiscal year 2024 to 552 in fiscal year 2026, with the administration proposing a further reduction to 547 FTEs in fiscal year 2027, representing roughly a 40% reduction from fiscal year 2024 levels. In 2025, ridership reached approximately 8.1 billion trips, still about 19% below pre-pandemic levels. Bus ridership stood at 84% of fourth quarter 2019 levels in fourth quarter 2025, while subway ridership lagged at 79% and commuter rail at 77%.

The Bottom Line

Transit systems face compounding pressures as authorization and funding decisions loom. The Department of Transportation's 2024 Conditions and Performance report estimated a $127.8 billion reinvestment backlog in 2025 dollars as of 2018, a gap that proposed budget cuts and the elimination of dedicated clean vehicle funding would worsen. Simultaneously, violence in transit systems has surged, with homicides averaging more than double the 2015-2019 baseline and assaults rising about 50%, straining both rider confidence and agency resources. These challenges are already visible: TriMet in Portland announced service cuts and layoffs in May 2026, a preview of pressures facing transit agencies nationwide if funding and workforce capacity decline further under the proposed authorization.

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