Sponsors
The bill directs substantial federal funding and program rules to modernize and expand bus networks—improving service, equity, accessibility, and accelerating projects for many riders—while raising federal and eventual local costs, adding administrative and procurement constraints, and creating tradeoffs with existing road projects and smaller providers' capacity.
Millions of urban and low-income transit riders will get expanded, more frequent, and more reliable bus service (more routes, longer hours, higher frequency, and transit-priority corridors), improving access to jobs and essential services.
State and local transit agencies and governments receive large federal grants and high initial operating reimbursements (covering a large share of capital and up to 100% of operating increases for the first 3 years), substantially lowering local capital and near-term operating funding burdens.
Federal funding and program support (planning, environmental review, dispute resolution, and research on best practices) will accelerate project delivery and help agencies implement proven service and priority designs more quickly.
Local governments and taxpayers may face sizable ongoing operating and capital costs once the initial federal 100% operating coverage ends (federal share drops to 33% in the following period), creating fiscal pressure for transit budgets and local services.
The bill increases federal spending (large authorizations plus recurring annual programs), which raises federal budgetary pressure and could require offsets or crowd out other priorities.
Extensive application, reporting, analysis, and outreach requirements create substantial administrative burdens that favor larger agencies with planning capacity and may disadvantage small or rural transit providers.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Creates competitive grants, shelter reimbursement, procurement rules, and ROW cooperation requirements to fund and accelerate bus network redesigns and transit-priority measures.
Introduced September 9, 2025 by Maxwell Frost · Last progress September 9, 2025
Creates new competitive grant programs and requirements to accelerate bus network redesigns, add bus shelters, and give transit providers tools to get transit-priority measures in public rights-of-way. It authorizes federal funding for bus-related grants, sets application and reporting rules, defines federal cost‑share and procurement standards (including Buy America), and requires cooperation between right-of-way owners and transit agencies with an FTA dispute-resolution backstop. The bill funds planning, implementation, and some operating-cost increases for redesigned bus service, sets performance and equity analyses for grant applicants (including a target to double ridership within six years), creates a shelter reimbursement and grant program with annual per-shelter rates, allows cooperative state procurement for shelters/signage/bike parking, and authorizes FTA administrative funding to support program delivery and research.