19. Department of Transportation · Notable · Needs Congress
Remove federal subsidies for transit spending
Printed page 636 19. Department of Transportation
“With the federal government facing mounting debt, the best course of action would be to remove federal subsidies for transit spending, allowing states and localities to decide whether mass transit is a good investment for them.”
What has happened
- Not started
Federal transit subsidies were continued, not removed. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 appropriates about $1.68 billion for the Capital Investment Grants program alone - $1,357,300,000 under 49 U.S.C. 5309(d), $200,000,000 under 5309(e), $25,700,000 under 5309(h) and $100,000,000 under FAST Act sec. 3005(b) - alongside the transit formula programs, and adds administrative provisions protecting the money. The FY2027 Budget does not propose removing transit subsidies either: it proposes to right-size Capital Investment Grants by $486 million so funds go to the most meritorious projects, which under playbook section 3b is proposing something else for the same object.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Budget rule, applied symmetrically: a proposed reduction of $486 million in a program the Budget keeps is not a request to remove federal transit subsidies, so it does not reach attempted. The FY2027 Budget is at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/budget_fy2027.pdf , DOT chapter, “Transit Right-Sized”.
- Leveled with #1748 on the same page: both are addressed to Congress, both were legislated against in the same Act.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- Federal transit subsidies
- ID
- 1749