Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, the amendment I am offering today with my good friends Congressmen Quigley and Butterfield will return funding for FTA Technical Assistance and Training back to its 2014 level. Older adults and individuals with disabilities disproportionately rely on public transit to live, learn, get to work and access recreation in their communities. The Technical Assistance and Training dollars made available by this amendment will help increase mobility for people with disabilities and older adults. By providing this assistance to our transit systems and services, we can ensure that they become more accessible for those who rely on them the most.
Mr. Chairman, FTA has a long history of working with Easter Seals, the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, and others to provide training, technical assistance, and other problem-solving support to the transit industry, people with disabilities, and older adults; and it is imperative that this work continue as more people age and more people with disabilities seek to live as independently as possible.
Now, in order to realize this goal, FTA needs adequate resources to support these technical assistance activities. To that end, my amendment will increase funding by $2 million for FTA Technical Assistance and Training and reduce, by an equivalent amount, funding for FTA administrative expenses.
Mr. Chairman, the House adopted this exact amendment last year to restore FTA Technical Assistance and Training to $5 million. Unfortunately, it was cut to $3 million in this bill. My amendment will simply restore the funds back to the fiscal year '15 House-adopted level of $5 million.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I ask that my colleagues support this amendment, which will provide a world of benefit to all those that it serves.
I thank my colleagues today for their consideration.
Again, I urge passage of the amendment, and with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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