The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the availability of $212.3 million under the Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program to transit agencies to help them recover from major declared disasters in 2017 and 2020-2022. 

To receive funding, transit agencies must have eligible expenses resulting from an event for which the president declared a major disaster within those timeframes, according to the FTA's news release.

FTA’s Emergency Relief Program enables FTA to provide assistance to public transit operators in the aftermath of an emergency or major disaster. The program helps states and public transportation systems:

• Pay for repairing and/or replacing equipment and facilities that have suffered serious damage as a result of an emergency, including natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes; 

• Undertake capital projects to repair or replace facilities or equipment that have suffered serious damage as a result of an emergency; 

• Support the costs of evacuation, rescue operations, temporary public transportation service; and

• Reestablishing, expanding, or relocating service before, during, or after an emergency.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Pub. L. 117-328), signed into law in December 2022, appropriated the funding for the ER Program’s support for 2017 and 2020-22 declared disasters.