Frequently Asked Questions
These FAQs do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. These FAQs are intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies. FTA recipients and subrecipients should refer to FTA’s statutes and regulations for applicable requirements.
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No, in both instances.
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No. At this time.
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Yes, it is actually recommended to have a back-up User Manager; you can include the second individual on the same delegation letter.
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Yes. FTA will update its Circular 5010.1D, “Grant Management Requirements” and may update other circulars to change references from TEAM to TrAMS and to ensure that information in our circulars is consistent with new grantmaking procedures put in place in TrAMS.
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No. At this time, DOT does not intend to establish a DOT-wide grantmaking system.
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Individuals drafting applications in TrAMS will be asked to identify the Projects that will receive FTA financial assistance. An application created in TrAMS must identify at least one Project, or have more than one Project, if necessary. Each Project is a record; therefore in TrAMS you can run reports and search on the Project record. (Revised 1/2015)
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Yes. You may need a second letter (1) If you have already uploaded a letter to identify an NTD manager, but did not include and specify a TrAMS User Manager, then Yes, you will need to provide a second letter to specifically identify a TrAMS User Manager. (2) If you have not yet identified an NTD User Manager, you can upload a single letter but clearly specify both your NTD and your TrAMS User Managers in both the letter and in TEAM. In both cases this may be the same individual or separate individuals.
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Yes. You are not required to designated right now, you may designate a User Manager later once TrAMS is live. If you do not designate a User Manager now, you may submit a request and signed delegation to your Regional LSM who would then establish the User Manager in the TrAMS system. The individual delegated must be an active TEAM user migrated to TrAMS.
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No. All existing TEAM users will be migrated over and you will have immediate access regardless if you have a User Manager identified. However, if any new roles need to be assigned to a user or you have new personnel who need access to TrAMS then you must assign a User Manager to initiate those actions.
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Yes. A new form is required for a new User Manager (signed etc…).
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No. Grantees will continue to use ECHO for reimbursement for awards made under TEAM and TrAMS.
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There are four cases where amendments may be considered:
Recipients can create a “zero dollar” amendment to TEAM awards to move funds between existing scope codes, including adding new ALIs to existing scope codes, provided it does not increase the scope of work that requires a new DOL certification. The amendment may include zeroing out funds from existing scope codes as long as no additional funds (local or federal) increase the overall award budget and the matching requirement does not change.
Recipients can create amendments to deobligate funds from TEAM grants.
Recipients can create close-out amendments.
In limited cases, recipients can create amendments to obligate additional funds (see below questions).
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Recipients, except in several limited cases outlined below, must initiate new grants in TrAMS rather than amending TEAM grants to add additional funding. When in doubt as to whether an amendment to an award meets the limitations below, please contact your FTA point of contact for additional direction. FTA limits amendments to add funds to TEAM awards as follows:
Recipients can create amendments to TEAM awards to add funds associated with existing Full Funding Grant Agreements or larger capital investments covered under a similar Project Construction Grant Agreement. Funds may include prior year and FY 2016 and beyond funding necessary to satisfy the agreement.
For recipients that were only able to obligate a portion of their FY 2015 funding in TEAM, they may create amendments to those TEAM awards to complete the activity by adding their final portion of FY 2015 funding. These actions must use existing scope codes and existing ALIs. For example, amendments may be used where the activity was previously identified as a non-add scope or other budget activity. No new scope codes and no new ALIs may be added to increase the award budget or scope of work of a TEAM award. FY 2016 funds must be used in a new grant.
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TrAMS is anticipated to deploy in Federal Fiscal Year 2016. (Updated 5/20/2015)
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You can find all of the associated documents on the TrAMS Guidance page.
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Recipients of FTA funding who currently do business in TEAM or who will do business in TrAMS to apply for or manage FTA grants or cooperative agreements will be provided access to TrAMS.
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TEAM was first deployed in 1998 and lacks many of the more modern information technology capabilities that are now commonplace in grantmaking systems. TrAMS will provide a more efficient, user-friendly, and flexible tool to award and manage grants and cooperative agreements. It will provide more useful information, and it will strengthen the integrity and consistency of our grants award and management process.
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With the passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, new cross-cutting requirements apply to all funds not obligated by February 16, 2016. (See FTA’s Notice of Transit Program Changes, Authorized Funding Levels and Implementation of Federal Public Transportation Law as Amended by the FAST Act and FTA Fiscal Year 2016 Apportionments, Allocations, Program Information and Interim Guidance, published in the Federal Register February 16, 2016). This restriction therefore ensures FTA and the recipients can appropriately track requirements based on the type of award and prevents combining funds with different requirements.
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No. If you currently have an account in TEAM, your account information will be migrated into TrAMS. TrAMS will set up your account and assign the roles that you currently have under TEAM, including delegations. Your account must be in “active” status when migration occurs (Updated 5/20/2015)
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No. In general, there will be no disruption of recipients ability to request reimbursements via ECHO during the transition, however FTA will need to close ECHO for a very short period of time to complete financial reconciliation just like we do at the end of every fiscal year to do year end close out. We will notify users well in advance of when this will occur.