Federal Transit Administration August 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This solicitation is for proposals from national non-profit organizations with transportation coordination and technical assistance expertise for a cooperative agreement to develop and implement a National Resource Center for Human Service Transportation Coordination (NRC). The NCR will manage a program to improve and enhance the coordination of Federal resources for human service transportation with those of the Department of Transportation (DOT). The major goal of the NRC is to assist local communities and States in the expansion and provision of coordinated human service transportation for older adults, people with disabilities, and individuals with lower incomes. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will award one four year agreement. Year one of the cooperative agreement is for one million, five hundred eighty-four thousand dollars ($1,584,000) as authorized in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity ActA Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) and subsequently appropriated. Funding for subsequent years will be based on annual appropriations as well as annual performance reviews.

The Federal Transit Administration and the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for Sound Transit's proposed 11 to 19- mile extension of the Central Link Light rail transit project from Seattle to the cities of Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Redmond, within King County, Washington. The EIS will also be prepared in accordance with the provisions of the recently enacted Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), and with Washington's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to alert interested parties regarding the plan to prepare the EIS, to provide information on the nature of the proposed transit project, to invite participation in the EIS process, including comments on the scope of the EIS proposed in this notice, and to announce that public scoping meetings will be conducted. The EIS will address the no action alternative and reasonable alternatives that meet the project purpose and need.

The Federal Transit Administration invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval to renew the following information collections: (1) Nondiscrimination as it Applies to FTA Grant Programs. (2) Title VI as it Applies to FTA Grant Programs. The collections involve our Nondiscrimination and Title VI Programs. The information to be collected for the Nondiscrimination Program is necessary to ensure that any employee or applicant for employment is not discriminated against on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, national origin, age or disability. The information to be collected for the Title VI Program is necessary to ensure that service and benefits are provided nondiscriminatorily without regard to race, color, or national origin. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments was published on May 30, 2006.

This Notice accomplishes several purposes. First, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) summarizes and responds to written comments FTA received in response to a March 22, 2006, Federal Register Notice regarding proposed grant program provisions for this new program and to oral comments FTA received during two announced public meetings on this program that were held on April 4, 2006, in Denver, Colorado, and on April 7, 2006, in Kansas City, Missouri. Second, this Notice announces the availability of funds in fiscal year (FY) 2006 for the Public Transportation on Indian Reservations Program, a new program authorized by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users. Finally, this Notice announces a national solicitation for applications, with grantees and projects to be selected on a competitive basis; the grant terms and conditions that will apply to this new program; and grant application procedures and selection criteria for FY 2006 projects.

This rulemaking proposes to establish a new subpart in 601 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, to establish emergency relief procedures for granting relief from Federal transit policy statements, circulars, guidance documents, and regulations in times of national or regional emergencies.