On the recordNovember 6, 2023
This amendment would strike the funds for the Capital Investment Grant Program. For the past decade, the Capital Investment Grant Program has led to the misallocation of funds to the most expensive projects without regard to the project's financial viability or expected ridership, which would seem to me to be kind of important. By overextending their resources in search of Federal grant funding, transit agencies fail to consider the impact this will have on their ability to provide existing services. While this was true before the pandemic, it is of particular concern in the post-pandemic environment. FDA data shows 2023 ridership came in a little over 50 percent of 2019 levels, so there is little need to build out additions to the transit system before we can ascertain the long-term impact of the pandemic and the interest in public transportation generally on ridership. People aren't riding, yet we are going to build more of this stuff. That seems, I don't know, a little counterintuitive to me. Congress now has provided in excess of $100 billion in annual and emergency spending to public transit agencies over the pandemic era period. There is a reason for that. We need to slow down and determine where future ridership is headed before we continue to throw good money after bad into capital projects we can't afford, are unnecessary, and will never be sustained. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
