Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, As Amended............ National Mass Transportation Assistance Act of 1974—Additional Provisions § 1601 PART I-THE FEDERAL URBAN MASS TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM-BASIC LAW URBAN MASS TRANSPORTATION ACT OF 1964 Public Law 88-365, 78 Stat. 302, 49 U.S.C. 1601 et seq. An Act 1 To authorize the Secretary of Transportation to provide additional assistance for the development of comprehensive and coordinated mass transportation systems, both public and private, in metropolitan and other urban areas, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964." Findings and Purposes 2 SECTION 2. (a) The Congress finds (1) that the predominant part of the Nation's population is located in its rapidly expanding metropolitan and other urban areas, which generally cross the boundary lines of local jurisdictions and often extend into two or more States; (2) that the welfare and vitality of urban areas, the satisfactory movement of people and goods within such areas, and the effectiveness of housing, urban renewal, highway, and other federally aided programs are being jeopardized by the deterioration or inadequate provision of urban transportation facilities and services, the intensification of traffic congestion, and the lack of coordinated transportation and other develpment planning on a comprehensive and continuing basis; and (3) that Federal financial assistance for the development of efficient and coordinated mass transportation systems is essential to the solution of these urban problems. 1 As originally enacted, the Act vested urban mass transportation functions in the Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. The Department of Housing and Urban Development Act (Pub. L. 89-174) transferred those functions to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. By section 20 of Public Law 90-19, the Act was amended to read "Secretary of Housing and Urban Development." Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1968 (see Part III, p. 55) transferred most urban mass transportation functions to the Secretary of Transportation. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to the Secretary mean the Secretary of Transportation. * See also the statement of findings and purposes contained in section 1 of the Urban Mass Transportation Assistance Act of 1970 (p. 29) and section 2 of the National Mass Transportation Assistance Act of 1974 (p. 26). § 1602 (b) The purposes of this Act are (1) to assist in the development of improved mass transportation facilities, equipment, techniques, and methods, with the cooperation of mass transportation companies both public and private; (2) to encourage the planning and establishment of areawide urban mass transportation systems needed for economical and desirable urban development, with the cooperation of mass transportation companies both public and private; and (3) to provide assistance to State and local governments and their instrumentalities in financing such systems, to be operated by public or private mass transportation companies as determined by local needs. Federal Financial Assistance 3, 4 SECTION 3.5 (a) (1) The Secretary is authorized, in accordance with the provisions of this Act and on such terms and conditions as he may prescribe to make grants or loans (directly, through the purchase of securities or equipment trust certificates, or otherwise) to assist States and local public bodies and agencies thereof in financing (1) the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, and improvement of facilities and equipment for use, by operation or lease or otherwise, in mass transportation service in urban areas and in coordinating such service with highway and other transportation in such areas, and (2) the establishment and organization of 3 The Federal-aid highway law (see Part II) authorizes the use of certain Federal-aid highway funds to assist in improving urban mass transportation. Section 142 of title 23 authorizes the use of funds for the construction of highway lanes and other facilities specially designed to enhance urban mass transportation by bus. Section 137 authorizes the use of funds for acquisition and construction of fringe parking facilities if adequate public transportation service is made available for persons using such facilities. Under both sections, Federal funds can be used to pay up to 70 percent of the cost of such projects (Section 108 of Public Law 91-605). In addition, sec. 121 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 amended 23 USC 142 to permit construction of exclusive or preferential bus, truck, and emergency vehicle lanes as part of the Interstate System. Such projects are not subject to the four-lane requirement or other Interstate standard requirements contained in 23 USC 109(b). The Federal share payable for projects pursuant to 23 USC 142(b) is 90 percent-the same Federal-State ratio applicable to other projects on the Interstate System. 4 Section 301 (e) of Public Law 93-87 provides that the "provisions of assistance under the amendments made by this section shall not be construed as bringing within the application of chapter 15 of title 5, United States Code, any nonsupervisory employee of an urban mass transportation system (or of any other agency or entity performing related functions) to whom such chapter is otherwise inapplicable." 5 Section 2 of Public Law 91-453 changed section 3 by deleting the existing subsections (a) and (b), redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (e), and inserting new subsections (a), (b), (c), and (d). The substance of the changes made in section 3 by Public Law 91-453 is as follows: (i) eliminate the requirements that: "Loans under this section shall be subject to the restrictions and limitations set forth in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of section 202(b) of the Housing Amendments of 1955. The authority provided in section 203 of such Amendments to obtain funds for loans under clause (2) of section 202 (a) of such Amendments shall (except for undisbursed loan commitments) hereafter be exercised by the Secretary (without regard to the proviso in section 202(d) of such amendments) solely to obtain funds for loans under this section;" and replace these requirements with the provisions set forth in the last paragraph of subsection (c); (ii) impose the requirement that State Governors must have an opportunity to comment on certain applications for capital assistance (but see footnote 10); and (iii) establish the new authorities and requirements set forth in subsections (b) and (d). • In McDonald v. Stockton Metropolitan Transit District, 36 Cal. App. 3d 436, 111 Cal. Rptr. 637 (1974), where a transit district had contracted, inter alia, to install bus stop shelters as part of a capital grant project, it was held that where the district had refused to install such shelters as part of the completed public or quasi-public transit corridor development corporations or entities." Eligible facilities and equipment may include personal property including buses and other rolling stock and real property including land (but not public highways), within the entire zone affected by the construction and operation of transit improvements, including station sites, needed for any efficient and coordinated mass transportation system which is compatible with socially, economically, and environmentally sound patterns of land use. No grant or loan shall be provided under this section unless the Secretary determines that the appicant has or will have (A) the legal, financial, and technical capacity to carry out the proposed project; and (B) satisfactory continuing control, through operation or lease or otherwise, over the use of the facilities and the equipment. The Secretary may make loans for real property acquisition pursuant to subsection (b) upon a determination, which shall be in lieu of the preceding determination, that the real property is reasonably expected to be required in connection with a mass transportation system and that it will be used for that purpose within a reasonable period. No grant or loan funds shall be used for payment of ordinary governmental or nonproject operating expenses, nor shall any grant or loan funds be used to support procurements utilizing exclusionary or discriminatory specifications." (2) It is declared to be in the national interest to encourage and promote the development of transportation systems embracing various modes of transport in a manner that will serve the States and local communities efficiently and effectively. To accomplish this objective the Secretary shall cooperate with the States in the development of long-range plans and programs which are properly coordinated with plans for improvements in other affected forms of transportation and which are formulated with due consideration to their probable effect on the future development of urban areas of more than fifty thousand population. The development of projects in urbanized areas under this section shall be based upon a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process covering all modes of surface transportation and carried on by the States and the governing bodies of local communities in accordance with this paragraph. The Secretary shall not approve any project in an urbanized area after July 1, 1976, under this section unless he finds that such project is based on continuing comprehensive transportation planning process carried on in conformance with the objectives of this paragraph.10, 11 project, the Department of Transportation has authority under the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 to either withhold further financial assistance, or to bring suit for damages or for specific performance to enforce the grant contract. Clause (2) was added by section 104(a) of Pub. L. 93-503. 8 Amended by section 104(b) of Pub. L. 93-503. Prior to the change, the sentence read as follows: "Eligible facilities and equipment may include land (but not public highways), buses and other rolling stock, and other real and personal property needed for an efficient and coordinated transpor. tation system." Added by section 106 of Pub. L. 93-503. 10 Section 102(3) of Pub. L. 93-503 deleted language which required that an applicant for assistance for a project located wholly or partly in a State in which there is statewide comprehensive transportation planning to furnish a copy of its application to the Governor of each State affected concurrently with submission to the Secretary; and that if within 30 days thereafter, the Governor submitted comments to the Secretary, the Secretary would have been required to consider such comments before taking final |