Request for Information; Thriving Communities Initiative, 48064-48067 [2022-16860]

Download as PDF 48064 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 150 / Friday, August 5, 2022 / Notices The revised rule only increases the upper edge area swept by the windshield wipers and does not change the lower edge area. Applicant’s Request DCNA has applied for an exemption from 49 CFR 393.60(e)(1) to allow its driver assistance camera technology device to be mounted higher in the lower area of the windshield than is currently permitted. A copy of the application is included in the docket referenced at the beginning of this notice. lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1 Equivalent Level of Safety In its application, DCNA states that the functionality of its driver assistance camera technology includes the ability to manage the Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Active Brake Assist 5 (ABA5) which is the minimum standard safety system and integral to the Electronic Stability Program (ESP). ABA5 uses both existing radar and the new camera technology for both pedestrian and vehicle recognition, commonly referred to as a ‘‘forward collision mitigation system.’’ The technology housing is approximately 187 mm (7.36 inches) tall by 277 mm (10.9 inches) wide and will be mounted in the approximate lower center of the windshield with the bottom edge of the housing approximately 240 mm (about 9.44 inches) above the lower edge of the area swept by the windshield wipers. The technology will be mounted outside the driver’s normal sight lines to the road ahead, signs, signals, and mirrors. This location will allow for optimal functionality of the safety features supported by DCNA’s driver assistance camera technology. The location of the technology—within the sweep of the left side windshield wiper—also ensures the safe operation of the system in inclement weather, where the sensors field of view can be wiped ’clean’, as required, by normal use of the windshield wiper system. DCNA believes that mounting the driver assistance camera technology system as described will maintain a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety achieved without the exemption. IV. Request for Comments In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 31315(b)(6), FMCSA requests public comment from all interested persons on DCNA’s application for an exemption. All comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated at the beginning of this notice VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:20 Aug 04, 2022 Jkt 256001 will be considered and will be available for examination in the docket at the location listed under the ADDRESSES section of this notice. Comments received after the comment closing date will be filed in the public docket and will be considered to the extent practicable. In addition to late comments, FMCSA will also continue to file, in the public docket, relevant information that becomes available after the comment closing date. Interested persons should continue to examine the public docket for new material. Larry W. Minor, Associate Administrator for Policy. [FR Doc. 2022–16868 Filed 8–4–22; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Railroad Administration Notice of Final Agency Actions on Proposed Railroad Project in California Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), DOT. ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: This notice announces final environmental actions taken by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for the Coachella Valley-San Gorgonio Pass Rail Corridor Service Project. By this notice, FRA is advising the public of the time limit to file a claim seeking judicial review of the action. DATES: A claim seeking judicial review of FRA action for the Project will be barred unless the claim is filed on or before August 5, 2024. If Federal law later authorizes a time period of less than 2 years for filing such claim, then that shorter time period applies. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions about this notice, please contact Amanda Ciampolillo, Supervisory Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Railroad Policy and Development, FRA, telephone: (617) 866–9398, email: Amanda.Ciampolillo@ dot.gov. For legal questions, please contact Faris Mohammed, AttorneyAdvisor, Office of the Chief Counsel, FRA, telephone: (202) 763–3230, email: Faris.Mohammed@dot.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is given that FRA has taken final agency actions, subject to 49 U.S.C. 24201(a)(4) and 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1), by issuing certain approvals for the following railroad project: Coachella Valley-San Gorgonio Pass Rail Corridor Service Project (Project). The Project consists of a corridor-wide planning study of intercity passenger rail service between SUMMARY: PO 00000 Frm 00108 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 the cities of Los Angeles and Coachella, CA. FRA conducted the study in coordination with the California Department of Transportation and the Riverside County Transportation Commission. The purpose of the Project is to evaluate options for providing intercity passenger rail service to serve a range of purposes for travel between the Coachella Valley and the Los Angeles Basin, including business, social, medical, leisure, and recreational trips. This notice applies to all decisions on the Project as of the issuance date of this notice and all laws under which such actions were taken, including but not limited to, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) [42 U.S.C. 4321– 4375], Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act [23 U.S.C. 138, 49 U.S.C. 303], Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act [54 U.S.C. 306108], and the Clean Air Act [42 U.S.C. 7401–7671q]. The actions on the Project, as well as the laws under which such actions were taken, are described in the combined Final Environmental Impact Statement/Record of Decision (FEIS/ROD) approved on June 3, 2022. The FEIS/ROD and other documents are available at https://railroads.dot.gov/ environment/environmental-reviews/ coachella-valley-san-gorgonio-passcorridor-investment-plan. (Authority: 49 U.S.C. 24201(a)(4) and 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1)) Issued in Washington, DC. Jamie P. Rennert, Director, Office of Infrastructure Investment. [FR Doc. 2022–16854 Filed 8–4–22; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910–06–P DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION [Docket No. DOT–OST–2022–0082] Request for Information; Thriving Communities Initiative Office of the Secretary (OST), Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Request for information. AGENCY: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created several new programs at the US Department of Transportation (DOT) that allow local governments, non-profit organizations, tribal governments, and other political subdivisions of state or local governments to apply directly for DOT discretionary grant funding. In response to President Biden’s Executive Orders, ‘‘Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,’’ and SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\05AUN1.SGM 05AUN1 lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 150 / Friday, August 5, 2022 / Notices ‘‘Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,’’ DOT has included criteria in its notices of funding opportunity to prioritize the needs of disadvantaged communities for many of these new programs. Through this Request for Information (RFI) for the newly created Thriving Communities Initiative, DOT is looking to gain information on the technical assistance, planning, and capacity building needs faced by disadvantaged communities that are seeking to advance local transportation projects within the existing Federal, state, and regional transportation planning and project delivery methods including to access innovative finance programs offered through DOT. DATES: Comments are requested by August 26, 2022. ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to the docket number above and be submitted by one of the following methods: • Federal Rulemaking Portal: https:// www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. • Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140, Washington, DC 20590–0001. • Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12–140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments, see the Public Participation heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. Privacy Act: Except as provided below, all comments received into the docket will be made public in their entirety. The comments will be searchable by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You should not include information in your comment that you do not want to be made public. You may review DOT’s complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477–78), or at https:// www.transportation.gov/privacy. Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, visit https:// www.regulations.gov or the street address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the dockets. VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:20 Aug 04, 2022 Jkt 256001 For policy issues, please email ThrivingCommunities@dot.gov or contact Victor Austin at 202–366–2996. Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday, except for Federal holidays. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For this notice, DOT defines technical assistance to include programs, processes, and resources that provide targeted support, knowledge, or expertise to a community, region, organization, or other beneficiary to help access and successfully deploy funding and build local capacity to develop, design, and deliver transportation plans and projects. DOT is interested in learning more about best practices in technical assistance delivery approaches from non-Federal providers and Federal agencies which disadvantaged communities feel have been successful in meeting their needs. DOT is also interested in the technical assistance challenges disadvantaged communities face or anticipate facing when seeking to access DOT-led technical assistance and capacity building opportunities. The information gained through this RFI will assist DOT to implement the Thriving Communities Initiative and will inform technical assistance programs being coordinated through the Build America Bureau (Bureau) that advance capacity building for disadvantaged communities, including rural and tribal governments. DOT is assessing its current suite of technical assistance programs and seeks to identify emerging technical assistance needs and best practices in the delivery approaches offered by other Federal agencies and by non-Federal technical assistance and capacity building providers. A Department goal in creating new technical assistance programs is to structure capacity building approaches that facilitate cross-sector coordination, build sustained capacity in local communities both within government and by other implementation partners, and foster multi-stakeholder engagement both in their delivery and outcomes. The RFI responses will inform work by the Bureau to develop and coordinate technical assistance programs that deliver improved results to communities. This includes enabling communities to accelerate project delivery, utilize innovative finance tools, and advance transportation projects that benefit disadvantaged communities, support the overall Thriving Communities Initiative, align SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: PO 00000 Frm 00109 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 48065 with DOT’s strategic priorities, and help to implement the Equity Action Plan.1 Through this RFI, DOT requests information on the technical assistance, planning, and capacity building needs faced by disadvantaged communities seeking to advance transportation projects within existing Federal, state, and regional transportation planning and project delivery methods to inform the development of technical assistance and capacity building funded through the Thriving Communities Program (TCP), the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, and the Bureau. The Department is also interested in the technical assistance challenges disadvantaged communities face or anticipate facing when seeking to access innovative financing tools and Federal credit assistance programs, such as those provided through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) (https:// www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/ financing/tifia) or the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) (https:// www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/ financing/rrif). DOT is keenly interested in ways to leverage and synergize these technical assistance programs to provide a coordinated and seamless process for their delivery and for communities to access these resources. Each of these programs, including TCP, has a placebased focus and is designed to work across a range of DOT grant programs, transportation modes, and in support of urban, suburban, rural, and tribal communities. Thriving Communities Initiative The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, provided $25 million to DOT to develop and implement technical assistance, planning, and capacity building to improve and foster thriving communities through transportation improvements through the Thriving Communities Initiative. This includes a new Thriving Communities Program by which DOT will utilize cooperative agreements with capacity building and technical assistance providers to support communities seeking to advance transformative, equitable, and climate-friendly infrastructure projects that benefit disadvantaged communities. Eligible applicants to provide this assistance include philanthropic 1 U.S. Department of Transportation, ‘‘FY2022– 2026 Strategic Plan,’’ available at: https:// www.transportation.gov/dot-strategic-plan. U.S. Department of Transportation, ‘‘Equity Action Plan’’ (January 2022), available at: https:// www.transportation.gov/priorities/equity/ actionplan. E:\FR\FM\05AUN1.SGM 05AUN1 48066 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 150 / Friday, August 5, 2022 / Notices lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1 entities, non-profit organizations, other Federal agencies, state or local governments and their agencies, Indian Tribes, or other technical assistance providers. The purpose of this assistance is to facilitate the planning and development of transportation and community revitalization activities supported by DOT under titles 23, 46, and 49, United States Code, that increase mobility, reduce pollution from transportation sources, expand affordable transportation options, facilitate efficient land use, preserve, or expand jobs, improve housing conditions, enhance connections to health care, education, and food security, or improve health outcomes. More information on the Thriving Communities Program is available at https://www.transportation.gov/grants/ thriving-communities. Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program The Thriving Communities Initiative will also coordinate technical assistance funded through DOT’s new Reconnecting Communities Pilot program. The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) program was created in BIL (IIJA) to reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating highways or other transportation facilities that create barriers to community connectivity. The program provides technical assistance and funding for planning and capital construction. The RCP Program provides DOT up to $30 million, cumulatively for FY 2022–FY 2026, to provide technical assistance and capacity building support for RCP applicants and grant recipients for transportation planning and capital investment projects. Recipients of FY 2022 Planning Grants and Capital Construction Grants will have access to RCP technical assistance based on the availability of DOT resources. DOT will prioritize technical assistance for recipients serving economically disadvantaged communities. For prospective RCP applicants who are not ready to apply for a Planning or Capital Construction Grant, DOT intends to provide technical assistance through learning academies starting in 2023. More information on the RCP program is available at: https:// www.transportation.gov/grants/ reconnecting-communities. Build America Bureau The TCP and RCP program technical assistance will be managed through the Bureau, which is also implementing several other technical assistance programs, some of which predate BIL. VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:20 Aug 04, 2022 Jkt 256001 These include the Regional Infrastructure Accelerators, the Build America Center, the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, and Asset Concession and Innovative Finance Assistance Programs. Some Bureau programs allow for direct grant agreements or procurements of technical assistance on behalf of recipients and/or providers. All of these programs are designed to improve transportation infrastructure financing and project delivery, develop new initiatives to facilitate public and private financing mechanisms, and analyze the costeffectiveness of new and alternative approaches. Information on the Build America Bureau is available at: https:// www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/. Disadvantaged Communities: Consistent with the Office of Management and Budget’s Interim Guidance for the Justice40 Initiative, DOT’s interim definition of Disadvantaged Communities includes (a) certain qualifying census tracts, (b) any tribal land, or (c) any territory or possession of the United States. DOT considers a census tract disadvantaged if it falls in the top 50% (75% for resilience) in at least four of the following categories—transportation access, health, environmental, economic, resilience, and equity disadvantage. For more information see https://www.transportation.gov/grants/ dot-navigator/federal-tools-determinedisadvantaged-community-status. RFI Definitions Questions to the Public The definitions for technical assistance, capacity building, planning, and disadvantaged communities are provided below and used for the purposes of this RFI. Technical assistance: Programs, processes, and resources that provide targeted support, knowledge or expertise to a community, region, organization, or other beneficiary to help them access and utilize Federal funding to develop, analyze, design, and deliver transportation plans and projects. Capacity building: Activities designed to improve the ability of an organization to design and implement the necessary technical, financial, business, data analysis, and management skills of grantees to access Federal funding, meet Federal requirements, undertake statewide and metropolitan long-range planning and programming activities, and implement other activities that broadly support project development and delivery. This includes developing long-term community capacity to sustain partnerships and engage nongovernmental partners, leadership and workforce development, and program evaluation. Planning: Efforts that support inclusive public participation and community engagement in developing and implementing a range of activities to identify, assess, and evaluate community needs, including but not limited to environmental reviews, data and mapping visualization, market and mobility studies, health and safety impacts, and climate vulnerability assessments. Planning assistance may involve developing or designing for a program or project that aligns with the goals of the DOT Strategic Plan: https:// www.transportation.gov/dot-strategicplan. The IIJA provides communities with an unprecedented opportunity to apply directly for Federal funding. Yet accessing these resources requires local communities to have considerable technical knowledge not only of the funding programs, but also of the larger transportation planning context including compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and other Federal requirements, and the means to successfully secure matching funds, leverage other funding and finance resources and to meet the reporting and oversight obligations of Federal grant funding. For many disadvantaged and underserved communities, these requirements create substantial barriers. The Department seeks to gather information on technical assistance, planning, and capacity building needs and challenges and identify potential models and best practices to further improve programs being coordinated by the Bureau through the Thriving Communities Initiative. Through these coordinated efforts, DOT seeks to foster local innovation, advance DOT’s equity goals, and support cross-issue and crosssector collaboration. The following list of questions and topic areas are intended to guide the Department in this effort. Please feel free to answer any or all of the following questions. PO 00000 Frm 00110 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 Determining Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Needs 1. What are the greatest barriers to disadvantaged communities in pursuing Federal transportation funds and delivering transportation projects, particularly for rural, tribal, and smaller jurisdictions that technical assistance could help address? What information and resources would help disadvantaged communities and local E:\FR\FM\05AUN1.SGM 05AUN1 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 150 / Friday, August 5, 2022 / Notices organizations pursue Federal transportation funds? 2. What types of technical assistance would be most useful or not useful to organizations serving or located in disadvantaged communities to work with local and state transportation agencies advance transportation projects that improve mobility, safety, economic development, equity outcomes and environmental issues? Are there particular issues that current DOT technical assistance programs do a good job of addressing? 3. How can DOT better provide project sponsors with technical assistance in support of competitive grants and credit program opportunities including: innovative finance tools, credit worthiness evaluation, benefit cost analyses, civil rights requirements, public engagement, and risk assessments; and are there particular challenges disadvantaged communities face in these areas that need to be addressed? 4. What other information should DOT consider as it creates new technical assistance and capacity building programs through the Bureau, particularly to support disadvantaged communities in identifying, designing, developing, financing, and implementing projects that can be supported through IIJA funding opportunities and programs? lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1 Approaches and Methods To Delivering and Evaluating Technical Assistance and Building Capacity 5. What technical assistance delivery models (Federal or non-Federal; direct grants or through service providers) have you found to be the most beneficial to building sustained capacity in disadvantaged communities, and to reducing the burden for disadvantaged communities to access these resources? What resources, technical assistance, and training have you found to be the most beneficial to building sustained capacity in disadvantaged communities? Further, given that DOT has provided technical assistance directly through its regional, field, division, and headquarters staff; through third party contractors and Centers; through grants directly to communities; and through a variety of mediums,2 please provide feedback on which of these you have found, or believe to be, the most effective models and why. 6. How could technical assistance programs be designed to support the 2 For reference, the DOT Navigator provides access to the suite of existing DOT technical assistance resources; available at https:// www.transportation.gov/dot-navigator. VerDate Sep<11>2014 17:20 Aug 04, 2022 Jkt 256001 involvement and capacity building of disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs), local contractors, and community organizations who may also be important partners? 7. How can interagency coordination between Federal, state, and regional offices enhance the delivery and impact of technical assistance efforts? 8. How should DOT evaluate the effectiveness of its place-based technical assistance programs and what data should it collect to assess its impact? Public Participation How do I prepare and submit comments? To ensure that your comments are filed correctly, please include the docket number DOT–OST–2022–0082 in your comments. Respondents are invited to provide information responding to any or all questions. Please submit one copy (two copies if submitting by mail or hand delivery) of your comments, including any attachments, to the docket following the instructions given above under ADDRESSES. Please note, if you are submitting comments electronically as a PDF (Adobe) file, we ask that the documents submitted be scanned using an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process, thus allowing the Agency to search and copy certain portions of your submissions. How do I submit confidential business information? Any submissions containing Confidential Information must be delivered to DOT in the following manner: • Submitted in a sealed envelope marked ‘‘confidential treatment requested.’’ • Document(s) or information that the submitter would like withheld from the public docket should be marked ‘‘PROPIN.’’ • Accompanied by an index listing the document(s) or information that the submitter would like the Department to withhold. The index should include information such as numbers used to identify the relevant document(s) or information, document title and description, and relevant page numbers and/or section numbers within a document. • Submitted with a statement explaining the submitter’s grounds for objecting to disclosing the information to the public. DOT will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the FOIA and not include them in the public docket. If DOT receives a FOIA PO 00000 Frm 00111 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 9990 48067 request for the information that the applicant has marked in accordance with this section, DOT will follow the procedures described in its FOIA regulations at 49 CFR 7.29. DOT also requests that submitters of Confidential Information include a non-confidential version (either redacted or summarized) of those confidential submissions in the public docket. If the submitter cannot provide a non-confidential version of its submission, DOT requests that the submitter post a notice in the docket stating that it has provided DOT with Confidential Information. Should a submitter fail to docket either a nonconfidential version of its submission or to post a notice that Confidential Information has been provided, we will note the receipt of the submission on the docket, with the submitter’s organization or name (to the degree permitted by law) and the date of submission. Will the Agency consider late comments? DOT will consider all comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated above under DATES. To the extent practicable, the Agency will also consider comments received after that date. How can I read the comments submitted by other people? You may read the comments received at the address given above under ADDRESSES. The hours of the docket are indicated above in the same location. You may also see the comments on the internet, identified by the docket number at the heading of this notice, at https://www.regulations.gov. Please note, this RFI is a planning document and will serve as such. The RFI should not be construed as policy, a solicitation for applications, or an obligation on the part of the government. Issued in Washington, DC, on August 2, 2022. Christopher Coes, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, Department of Transportation. [FR Doc. 2022–16860 Filed 8–4–22; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910–9P–P E:\FR\FM\05AUN1.SGM 05AUN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 150 (Friday, August 5, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48064-48067]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-16860]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Docket No. DOT-OST-2022-0082]


Request for Information; Thriving Communities Initiative

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), Department of Transportation 
(DOT).

ACTION: Request for information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enacted as the 
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created several new 
programs at the US Department of Transportation (DOT) that allow local 
governments, non-profit organizations, tribal governments, and other 
political subdivisions of state or local governments to apply directly 
for DOT discretionary grant funding. In response to President Biden's 
Executive Orders, ``Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved 
Communities Through the Federal Government,'' and

[[Page 48065]]

``Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,'' DOT has included 
criteria in its notices of funding opportunity to prioritize the needs 
of disadvantaged communities for many of these new programs. Through 
this Request for Information (RFI) for the newly created Thriving 
Communities Initiative, DOT is looking to gain information on the 
technical assistance, planning, and capacity building needs faced by 
disadvantaged communities that are seeking to advance local 
transportation projects within the existing Federal, state, and 
regional transportation planning and project delivery methods including 
to access innovative finance programs offered through DOT.

DATES: Comments are requested by August 26, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to the docket number above and be 
submitted by one of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building 
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. 
ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
    Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments, see 
the Public Participation heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 
section of this document. Note that all comments received will be 
posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal information provided.
    Privacy Act: Except as provided below, all comments received into 
the docket will be made public in their entirety. The comments will be 
searchable by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or 
signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, 
business, labor union, etc.). You should not include information in 
your comment that you do not want to be made public. You may review 
DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published 
on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78), or at https://www.transportation.gov/privacy.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, visit https://www.regulations.gov or the street 
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For policy issues, please email 
[email protected] or contact Victor Austin at 202-366-2996. 
Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday, 
except for Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For this notice, DOT defines technical 
assistance to include programs, processes, and resources that provide 
targeted support, knowledge, or expertise to a community, region, 
organization, or other beneficiary to help access and successfully 
deploy funding and build local capacity to develop, design, and deliver 
transportation plans and projects. DOT is interested in learning more 
about best practices in technical assistance delivery approaches from 
non-Federal providers and Federal agencies which disadvantaged 
communities feel have been successful in meeting their needs. DOT is 
also interested in the technical assistance challenges disadvantaged 
communities face or anticipate facing when seeking to access DOT-led 
technical assistance and capacity building opportunities.
    The information gained through this RFI will assist DOT to 
implement the Thriving Communities Initiative and will inform technical 
assistance programs being coordinated through the Build America Bureau 
(Bureau) that advance capacity building for disadvantaged communities, 
including rural and tribal governments. DOT is assessing its current 
suite of technical assistance programs and seeks to identify emerging 
technical assistance needs and best practices in the delivery 
approaches offered by other Federal agencies and by non-Federal 
technical assistance and capacity building providers.
    A Department goal in creating new technical assistance programs is 
to structure capacity building approaches that facilitate cross-sector 
coordination, build sustained capacity in local communities both within 
government and by other implementation partners, and foster multi-
stakeholder engagement both in their delivery and outcomes. The RFI 
responses will inform work by the Bureau to develop and coordinate 
technical assistance programs that deliver improved results to 
communities. This includes enabling communities to accelerate project 
delivery, utilize innovative finance tools, and advance transportation 
projects that benefit disadvantaged communities, support the overall 
Thriving Communities Initiative, align with DOT's strategic priorities, 
and help to implement the Equity Action Plan.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ U.S. Department of Transportation, ``FY2022-2026 Strategic 
Plan,'' available at: https://www.transportation.gov/dot-strategic-plan. U.S. Department of Transportation, ``Equity Action Plan'' 
(January 2022), available at: https://www.transportation.gov/priorities/equity/actionplan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Through this RFI, DOT requests information on the technical 
assistance, planning, and capacity building needs faced by 
disadvantaged communities seeking to advance transportation projects 
within existing Federal, state, and regional transportation planning 
and project delivery methods to inform the development of technical 
assistance and capacity building funded through the Thriving 
Communities Program (TCP), the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, 
and the Bureau. The Department is also interested in the technical 
assistance challenges disadvantaged communities face or anticipate 
facing when seeking to access innovative financing tools and Federal 
credit assistance programs, such as those provided through the 
Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) 
(https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/financing/tifia) or the 
Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) (https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/financing/rrif).
    DOT is keenly interested in ways to leverage and synergize these 
technical assistance programs to provide a coordinated and seamless 
process for their delivery and for communities to access these 
resources. Each of these programs, including TCP, has a place-based 
focus and is designed to work across a range of DOT grant programs, 
transportation modes, and in support of urban, suburban, rural, and 
tribal communities.

Thriving Communities Initiative

    The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, provided $25 million to 
DOT to develop and implement technical assistance, planning, and 
capacity building to improve and foster thriving communities through 
transportation improvements through the Thriving Communities 
Initiative. This includes a new Thriving Communities Program by which 
DOT will utilize cooperative agreements with capacity building and 
technical assistance providers to support communities seeking to 
advance transformative, equitable, and climate-friendly infrastructure 
projects that benefit disadvantaged communities. Eligible applicants to 
provide this assistance include philanthropic

[[Page 48066]]

entities, non-profit organizations, other Federal agencies, state or 
local governments and their agencies, Indian Tribes, or other technical 
assistance providers. The purpose of this assistance is to facilitate 
the planning and development of transportation and community 
revitalization activities supported by DOT under titles 23, 46, and 49, 
United States Code, that increase mobility, reduce pollution from 
transportation sources, expand affordable transportation options, 
facilitate efficient land use, preserve, or expand jobs, improve 
housing conditions, enhance connections to health care, education, and 
food security, or improve health outcomes. More information on the 
Thriving Communities Program is available at https://www.transportation.gov/grants/thriving-communities.

Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program

    The Thriving Communities Initiative will also coordinate technical 
assistance funded through DOT's new Reconnecting Communities Pilot 
program. The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) program was created 
in BIL (IIJA) to reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or 
mitigating highways or other transportation facilities that create 
barriers to community connectivity. The program provides technical 
assistance and funding for planning and capital construction. The RCP 
Program provides DOT up to $30 million, cumulatively for FY 2022-FY 
2026, to provide technical assistance and capacity building support for 
RCP applicants and grant recipients for transportation planning and 
capital investment projects. Recipients of FY 2022 Planning Grants and 
Capital Construction Grants will have access to RCP technical 
assistance based on the availability of DOT resources. DOT will 
prioritize technical assistance for recipients serving economically 
disadvantaged communities. For prospective RCP applicants who are not 
ready to apply for a Planning or Capital Construction Grant, DOT 
intends to provide technical assistance through learning academies 
starting in 2023. More information on the RCP program is available at: 
https://www.transportation.gov/grants/reconnecting-communities.

Build America Bureau

    The TCP and RCP program technical assistance will be managed 
through the Bureau, which is also implementing several other technical 
assistance programs, some of which predate BIL. These include the 
Regional Infrastructure Accelerators, the Build America Center, the 
Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, and Asset Concession and 
Innovative Finance Assistance Programs. Some Bureau programs allow for 
direct grant agreements or procurements of technical assistance on 
behalf of recipients and/or providers. All of these programs are 
designed to improve transportation infrastructure financing and project 
delivery, develop new initiatives to facilitate public and private 
financing mechanisms, and analyze the cost-effectiveness of new and 
alternative approaches. Information on the Build America Bureau is 
available at: https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/.

RFI Definitions

    The definitions for technical assistance, capacity building, 
planning, and disadvantaged communities are provided below and used for 
the purposes of this RFI.
    Technical assistance: Programs, processes, and resources that 
provide targeted support, knowledge or expertise to a community, 
region, organization, or other beneficiary to help them access and 
utilize Federal funding to develop, analyze, design, and deliver 
transportation plans and projects.
    Capacity building: Activities designed to improve the ability of an 
organization to design and implement the necessary technical, 
financial, business, data analysis, and management skills of grantees 
to access Federal funding, meet Federal requirements, undertake 
statewide and metropolitan long-range planning and programming 
activities, and implement other activities that broadly support project 
development and delivery. This includes developing long-term community 
capacity to sustain partnerships and engage non-governmental partners, 
leadership and workforce development, and program evaluation.
    Planning: Efforts that support inclusive public participation and 
community engagement in developing and implementing a range of 
activities to identify, assess, and evaluate community needs, including 
but not limited to environmental reviews, data and mapping 
visualization, market and mobility studies, health and safety impacts, 
and climate vulnerability assessments. Planning assistance may involve 
developing or designing for a program or project that aligns with the 
goals of the DOT Strategic Plan: https://www.transportation.gov/dot-strategic-plan.
    Disadvantaged Communities: Consistent with the Office of Management 
and Budget's Interim Guidance for the Justice40 Initiative, DOT's 
interim definition of Disadvantaged Communities includes (a) certain 
qualifying census tracts, (b) any tribal land, or (c) any territory or 
possession of the United States. DOT considers a census tract 
disadvantaged if it falls in the top 50% (75% for resilience) in at 
least four of the following categories--transportation access, health, 
environmental, economic, resilience, and equity disadvantage. For more 
information see https://www.transportation.gov/grants/dot-navigator/federal-tools-determine-disadvantaged-community-status.

Questions to the Public

    The IIJA provides communities with an unprecedented opportunity to 
apply directly for Federal funding. Yet accessing these resources 
requires local communities to have considerable technical knowledge not 
only of the funding programs, but also of the larger transportation 
planning context including compliance with the National Environmental 
Policy Act and other Federal requirements, and the means to 
successfully secure matching funds, leverage other funding and finance 
resources and to meet the reporting and oversight obligations of 
Federal grant funding. For many disadvantaged and underserved 
communities, these requirements create substantial barriers.
    The Department seeks to gather information on technical assistance, 
planning, and capacity building needs and challenges and identify 
potential models and best practices to further improve programs being 
coordinated by the Bureau through the Thriving Communities Initiative. 
Through these coordinated efforts, DOT seeks to foster local 
innovation, advance DOT's equity goals, and support cross-issue and 
cross-sector collaboration.
    The following list of questions and topic areas are intended to 
guide the Department in this effort. Please feel free to answer any or 
all of the following questions.

Determining Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Needs

    1. What are the greatest barriers to disadvantaged communities in 
pursuing Federal transportation funds and delivering transportation 
projects, particularly for rural, tribal, and smaller jurisdictions 
that technical assistance could help address? What information and 
resources would help disadvantaged communities and local

[[Page 48067]]

organizations pursue Federal transportation funds?
    2. What types of technical assistance would be most useful or not 
useful to organizations serving or located in disadvantaged communities 
to work with local and state transportation agencies advance 
transportation projects that improve mobility, safety, economic 
development, equity outcomes and environmental issues? Are there 
particular issues that current DOT technical assistance programs do a 
good job of addressing?
    3. How can DOT better provide project sponsors with technical 
assistance in support of competitive grants and credit program 
opportunities including: innovative finance tools, credit worthiness 
evaluation, benefit cost analyses, civil rights requirements, public 
engagement, and risk assessments; and are there particular challenges 
disadvantaged communities face in these areas that need to be 
addressed?
    4. What other information should DOT consider as it creates new 
technical assistance and capacity building programs through the Bureau, 
particularly to support disadvantaged communities in identifying, 
designing, developing, financing, and implementing projects that can be 
supported through IIJA funding opportunities and programs?

Approaches and Methods To Delivering and Evaluating Technical 
Assistance and Building Capacity

    5. What technical assistance delivery models (Federal or non-
Federal; direct grants or through service providers) have you found to 
be the most beneficial to building sustained capacity in disadvantaged 
communities, and to reducing the burden for disadvantaged communities 
to access these resources? What resources, technical assistance, and 
training have you found to be the most beneficial to building sustained 
capacity in disadvantaged communities? Further, given that DOT has 
provided technical assistance directly through its regional, field, 
division, and headquarters staff; through third party contractors and 
Centers; through grants directly to communities; and through a variety 
of mediums,\2\ please provide feedback on which of these you have 
found, or believe to be, the most effective models and why.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ For reference, the DOT Navigator provides access to the 
suite of existing DOT technical assistance resources; available at 
https://www.transportation.gov/dot-navigator.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    6. How could technical assistance programs be designed to support 
the involvement and capacity building of disadvantaged business 
enterprises (DBEs), local contractors, and community organizations who 
may also be important partners?
    7. How can interagency coordination between Federal, state, and 
regional offices enhance the delivery and impact of technical 
assistance efforts?
    8. How should DOT evaluate the effectiveness of its place-based 
technical assistance programs and what data should it collect to assess 
its impact?

Public Participation

How do I prepare and submit comments?

    To ensure that your comments are filed correctly, please include 
the docket number DOT-OST-2022-0082 in your comments. Respondents are 
invited to provide information responding to any or all questions.
    Please submit one copy (two copies if submitting by mail or hand 
delivery) of your comments, including any attachments, to the docket 
following the instructions given above under ADDRESSES. Please note, if 
you are submitting comments electronically as a PDF (Adobe) file, we 
ask that the documents submitted be scanned using an Optical Character 
Recognition (OCR) process, thus allowing the Agency to search and copy 
certain portions of your submissions.

How do I submit confidential business information?

    Any submissions containing Confidential Information must be 
delivered to DOT in the following manner:
     Submitted in a sealed envelope marked ``confidential 
treatment requested.''
     Document(s) or information that the submitter would like 
withheld from the public docket should be marked ``PROPIN.''
     Accompanied by an index listing the document(s) or 
information that the submitter would like the Department to withhold. 
The index should include information such as numbers used to identify 
the relevant document(s) or information, document title and 
description, and relevant page numbers and/or section numbers within a 
document.
     Submitted with a statement explaining the submitter's 
grounds for objecting to disclosing the information to the public.
    DOT will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the 
FOIA and not include them in the public docket. If DOT receives a FOIA 
request for the information that the applicant has marked in accordance 
with this section, DOT will follow the procedures described in its FOIA 
regulations at 49 CFR 7.29. DOT also requests that submitters of 
Confidential Information include a non-confidential version (either 
redacted or summarized) of those confidential submissions in the public 
docket. If the submitter cannot provide a non-confidential version of 
its submission, DOT requests that the submitter post a notice in the 
docket stating that it has provided DOT with Confidential Information. 
Should a submitter fail to docket either a non-confidential version of 
its submission or to post a notice that Confidential Information has 
been provided, we will note the receipt of the submission on the 
docket, with the submitter's organization or name (to the degree 
permitted by law) and the date of submission.

Will the Agency consider late comments?

    DOT will consider all comments received before the close of 
business on the comment closing date indicated above under DATES. To 
the extent practicable, the Agency will also consider comments received 
after that date.

How can I read the comments submitted by other people?

    You may read the comments received at the address given above under 
ADDRESSES. The hours of the docket are indicated above in the same 
location. You may also see the comments on the internet, identified by 
the docket number at the heading of this notice, at https://www.regulations.gov.
    Please note, this RFI is a planning document and will serve as 
such. The RFI should not be construed as policy, a solicitation for 
applications, or an obligation on the part of the government.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on August 2, 2022.
Christopher Coes,
Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, Department of 
Transportation.
[FR Doc. 2022-16860 Filed 8-4-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-9P-P
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