Department of Transportation August 16, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FAA proposes to rule and invites comment on the release of 0.7 acres of airport property at Enterprise Municipal Airport, Enterprise, Alabama, under the provisions of Title 49, U.S.C. Section 47107(h)(2).

The Surface Transportation Project Delivery Program (23 U.S.C. 327) allows a State to assume FHWA's environmental responsibilities for review, consultation, and compliance for Federal-aid highway projects. When a State assumes these Federal responsibilities, the State becomes solely responsible and liable for carrying out the responsibilities it has assumed, in lieu of FHWA. Prior to the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015, the program required semiannual audits during each of the first 2 years of State participation to ensure compliance by each State participating in the program. This notice presents the findings of the second audit report for the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) participation in accordance to these pre-FAST Act requirements.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and its implementing regulations, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) hereby announces that it is seeking renewal of the following currently approved information collection activities. Before submitting this information collection requirements for clearance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), FTA is soliciting public comment on specific aspects of the activities identified below. Title: 49 U.S.C. Section 5307Urbanized Area Formula Program. OMB Number: 2132-0502. Background: 49 U.S.C. 5307 The Urbanized Area Formula Funding program (49 U.S.C. 5307) makes Federal resources available to urbanized areas and to Governors for transit capital and operating assistance and for transportation related planning in urbanized areas. An urbanized area is a Census-designated area with a population of 50,000 or more as determined by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Funding is made available to designated recipients, which must be public bodies with the legal authority to receive and dispense Federal funds. Governors, responsible local officials and publicly owned operators of transit services are required to designate a recipient to apply for, receive, and dispense funds for urbanized areas pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5307(a)(2). The Governor or Governor's designee is the designated recipient for urbanized areas between 50,000 and 200,000. Eligible activities include 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 of buses, overhaul of buses, 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. All preventive maintenance and some Americans with Disabilities Act complementary paratransit service costs are considered capital costs. For urbanized areas with populations less than 200,000, operating assistance is an eligible expense. For urbanized areas with 200,000 in population and over, funds are apportioned and flow directly to a designated recipient selected locally to apply for and receive Federal funds. For urbanized areas under 200,000 in population, the funds are apportioned to the Governor of each state for distribution. With the passing of Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, the 100 Bus Rule was been expanded to include demand response service, excluding ADA complementary paratransit service. An exception to the 100 Bus Rule has been added as well. If a public transportation system executes a written agreement with one or more other public transportation systems within the urbanized area to allocate funds by a method other than by measuring vehicle revenue hours, each public transportation system that is part of the written agreement may follow the terms of the written agreement instead of the measured vehicle revenue hours. Under Grant Recipient Requirements, a provision has been added that directs recipients to maintain equipment and facilities in accordance with their transit asset management plan. Recipients are no longer required to expend 1% of their funding for associated transit improvements. However, recipients are still required to submit an annual report listing projects that were carried out in the preceding fiscal year. The Passenger Ferry Grant Program is also available to urbanized areas under the authority provided through 49 U.S.C. 5307 (section 5307). This program provides discretionary opportunity to capital projects. Capital projects include, but are not limited to, the purchase, replacement, or rehabilitation of ferries and terminals and related equipment. Funds may not be used to fund operating expenses, planning, or preventive maintenance. Respondents: State and local government, business or other for- profit institutions and non-profit institutions. Estimated Annual Burden on Respondents: Approximately 50 hours for each of the 2,245 respondents. Estimated Total Annual Burden: 67,250 hours. Frequency: Annual.

This notice is to advise interested persons that PHMSA has terminated the Designated Approval Agencies approvals listed herein. PHMSA, via certified mail, attempted to contact all of the below listed approval holders during May 2015. PHMSA issued a Show Cause letter via certified mail requesting a response within 30 days with their intent with respect to the approval. None of the companies complied with the requirements of the letter. Thus, PHMSA issued a Termination letter via certified mail in December 2015. To date, PHMSA has not received any correspondence concerning the below listed approval numbers.