SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

On July 18, 2017, FTA published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcing the availability of Federal funding for the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program as authorized by Federal transit law (49 U.S.C. 5339(b)). These program funds will provide financial assistance to states and eligible public agencies to replace, rehabilitate, purchase, or lease buses, vans, and related equipment, and capital projects to rehabilitate, purchase, construct, or lease bus-related facilities. In response to the NOFO, FTA received 453 project proposals from 53 States and territories totaling approximately $2 billion in Federal funds, or nearly nine dollars requested for each dollar available, indicating significant demand for funding for buses and bus facility projects. Project proposals were evaluated based on each applicant's responsiveness to the program evaluation criteria outlined in the NOFO.

FTA is funding 139 projects, as shown in Table 1, for a total of $264,446,775. Recipients selected for competitive funding should work with their FTA Regional Office to submit a grant application in FTA's Transit Award Management System (TrAMs) for the projects identified in the attached table. Funds must be used consistent with the competitive proposal and for the eligible capital purposes established in the NOFO and described in the FTA Circular 9030.1E. Applicants with more than one selected project will receive a single allocation that may be used for any one or more of the selected projects.

In cases where the allocation amount is less than the proposer's total requested amount, recipients are required to fund the scalable project option as described in the application. If the award amount does not correspond to the scalable option, for example due to a cap on the award amount, the recipient should work with the Regional Office to reduce scope or scale the project such that a complete phase or project is accomplished. Recipients are reminded that program requirements such as cost sharing or local match can be found in the NOFO. A discretionary project identification number has been assigned to each project for tracking purposes and must be used in the TrAMs application.

Selected projects are eligible to incur costs under pre-award authority no earlier than the date projects were publicly announced, April 5, 2018. Pre-award authority does not guarantee that project expenses incurred prior to the award of a grant will be eligible for reimbursement, as eligibility for reimbursement is contingent upon other requirements, such as planning and environmental requirements, having been met. For more about FTA's policy on pre-award authority, please see the FTA Fiscal Year Apportionments, Allocations, and Program Information and Interim Guidance found in 82 FR 6692 (January 19, 2017). Post-award reporting requirements include submission of the Federal Financial Report and Milestone progress reports in TrAMs as appropriate (see FTA.C.5010.1E and C9030.1E). Recipients must comply with all applicable Federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, FTA circulars, and other Federal requirements in carrying out the project supported by the FTA grant. FTA emphasizes that recipients must follow all third-party procurement guidance, as described in FTA.C.4220.1F. Funds allocated in this announcement must be obligated in a grant by September 30, 2021.

83 FR 29603