What's New

• On February 5, FTA announced approximately $110 million in funding to 8 transit agencies and state DOT’s in six states and one territory to help recover from recent natural disasters. 
• On August 2, 2023, FTA announced it is reopening the availability of approximately $110 million under the Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program to transit agencies affected by major declared disasters in calendar years 2017 and 2020-2022.
• On July 31, 2023, FTA announced $102.3 million in funding to 17 transit agencies, cities and planning councils in eight states and territories to help recover from recent natural disasters. 
• FTA's Hurricane and Natural Disaster Response webpage provides important information for transit agencies in the event of a disaster.

Overview

FTA’s Emergency Relief program, established under MAP-21 legislation, enables FTA to provide assistance to public transit operators in the aftermath of an emergency or major disaster. The program helps states and public transportation systems pay for protecting, repairing, and/or replacing equipment and facilities that may suffer or have suffered serious damage as a result of an emergency, including natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. The program can fund capital projects to protect, repair, or replace facilities or equipment that are in danger of suffering serious damage, or have suffered serious damage as a result of an emergency. The program can also fund the operating costs of evacuation, rescue operations, temporary public transportation service, or reestablishing, expanding, or relocating service before, during or after an emergency.

The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 provided the first appropriation for FTA’s Emergency Relief Program - $10.9 billion for FTA’s Emergency Relief Program for recovery and relief efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. After mandatory deductions, including sequestration, approximately $10.4 billion is available to FTA for allocation to states and transit operators affected by Hurricane Sandy. 

The second appropriation for FTA’s Emergency Relief Program was $330 million provided through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 for response and recovery related to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. For more information, see our Emergency Relief Program Overview presentation.

The third appropriation for FTA’s Emergency Relief Program was $10,542,000 from the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019 (Disaster Relief Act) (Pub. L. 116-20), signed into law on June 6, 2019, for transit systems affected by major declared disasters occurring in calendar year 2018.  Funding allocations can be found here.

The fourth appropriation was for $212,301,048 in grants under the Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program to States, territories, local governmental authorities, Indian tribes, and other FTA recipients affected by major declared disasters occurring in calendar years 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2022.  The first round of funding allocations can be found here.