Federal transit cuts could hit rural America hardest — SkimNews
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- BUILD America 250 Act would authorize $103.3 billion over five years for public transit — $16.5 billion less than the $119.9 billion baseline in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
- The Urban Institute estimates the BUILD Act would need an additional $24 billion (inflation-adjusted) to match the Jobs Act's level, and every state would receive at least $10 million less in formula funding over five years.
- Idaho would see the nation's largest percentage drop in federal formula transit funding at 18%, with Maine close behind at 16%; New York City would lose $2.3 billion over the five-year window.
- Researcher Yonah Freemark said millions rely on public transit in smaller communities, rural areas, and tribal communities — systems that are 'much more reliant on federal support' than urban transit agencies.
- Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was the lone Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to oppose the bill, calling it a 'familiar pattern' of treating highways as the default national priority while transit 'fights for insufficient resources.'
- Jeremy Maxand of Living Independent Network Corp in southern Idaho said losing federal support would isolate disabled seniors at home, likening it to 'not paying for electricity to power the ventilator, but leaving the ventilator.'
Why it matters: Rural and tribal riders who depend on federal dollars — because local governments have limited tax capacity — would lose their 'bare-minimum lifeline service' first, per Maxand. But urban centers don't escape either: New York City alone would forfeit $2.3 billion over five years, and the lone Democrat on the transportation committee voted against the bill, underscoring how 'bipartisan' doesn't mean uncontested.
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