Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Transportation announced yesterday that $1.5 billion in grants will be available through the Federal Transit Administration’s Buses and Bus Facilities and Low or No Emission bus competitive grant programs.
- The fiscal year 2025 grants focus on strengthening domestic bus manufacturing, according to the DOT’s press release.
- The funding opportunity does not include language related to climate change, sustainability, environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion. "American commuters don’t want to pay for deranged, leftist DEI mandates that don’t improve the efficiency of their daily commutes,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorized $5.6 billion in funding over five years for the low-no grants program and $5.1 billion for the bus facilities program, split among competitive and formula grants. States, local governments, territories and federally recognized Indian tribes are eligible for the grants.
The FTA will also require transit agencies to explain how their projects will make transportation to jobs, healthcare and retail more accessible for families with young children. Earlier this year, a DOT order established a policy to “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” when making decisions about grants, loans and programs.
The maximum federal share for these grants is 80% but increases to 85% for transit buses that are compliant with the Clean Air Act or are accessible to people with disabilities. The federal share rises to 90% for projects to make facilities related to low- or zero-emission buses accessible to people with disabilities.
As of July 2024, a total of 7,026 full-size zero-emission transit buses were funded, ordered, delivered or on the road in the U.S., according to Calstart, a national clean transportation advocacy group. Calstart projects that U.S. transit agencies will have over 15,000 such buses in their fleets by 2030.
Applications for this grant funding round are due by July 14, 2025.
