Durbin: Funding Bill for Departments of Transporation & Housing and Urban Development Protects Illinois Priorities

Press Release

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which he is a member, has approved a bill to fund the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the 2014 fiscal year that will protect Illinois priorities, promote infrastructure investment, and create jobs.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Durbin is a member, has approved $120 million to help move forward the planned rebuilding of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Red and Purple Lines. The funding is appropriated through a competitive grant program Durbin created as part of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).

The CTA was the first transit system accepted into the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)'s "Core Capacity" Program in November of last year. As the only system to be accepted into the program thus far, CTA and the FTA have begun moving forward on the environmental work necessary for design and construction of the planned rebuilding of the CTA's Red Line and Purple Line.

"This project will create jobs, and double the capacity of the CTA's most used rail lines," Durbin said. "Chicago is a world class city. The federal investments we are making today are putting us in the best position to provide world-class mass transit services in the future.'

As a member of the Senate-House Conference Committee tasked with producing a national transportation funding bill, Durbin fought to authorize a program that would allow existing transit lines (or "core capacity" projects), like the Red and Purple Lines, to compete for FTA funding under the "New Starts" grant program.

In June 2013, the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Durbin is a member, approved a Fiscal Year 2014 Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill that included approximately $2 billion for the "New Starts' grant program. Of that funding, $120 million was set aside for the Durbin-authored core capacity program that the Red and Purple Lines were accepted in November 2012.

MAP-21 made significant changes to streamline the federal permitting and rating process for "New Starts' projects. These new provisions were included with Durbin's support to increase the efficiency and reduce the time necessary to move toward construction of nationally significant transit projects. CTA will now have two years to complete planning and environmental work necessary for the Department of Transportation to determine if there is adequate justification and local financial commitment for the project to receive a full funding grant agreement from the federal government.

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