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On Sept. 30, the House and Senate passed, and President Bush signed into law H.R. 5183, which extends the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century for the sixth time since September 2003. The eight-month extension will expire May 31, 2005.

The bill authorizes transit program funding at eight-twelfths of the $7.8 billion included in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY2005 appropriations bill and guarantees funding at an annualized level of $7.3 billion as stated in the draft FY2005 budget resolution conference report. H.R. 5183 also stipulates that any new six-year bill should guarantee $7.8 billion in funding for the FY2005 transit program.

Also on Sept. 30, the President signed into law a continuing resolution to fund federal government programs — including the federal transit program — at fiscal-year 2004 levels through Nov. 20.

Meanwhile, a day earlier, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the Public Transportation Terrorism Prevention and Response Act of 2004 (H.R. 5082), which would authorize $3.5 billion during three years for transit security capital and operating costs. The U.S. Department of Transportation would allocate funds based on threat and risk assessments.

The FY2005 U.S. Department of Homeland Security appropriations bills for the House and Senate include $111 million and $317 million, respectively, for transit and rail security.