Resilient Transit Act of 2025

This bill lets the U.S. Department of Transportation give transit agencies more flexible “state of good repair” funds to make buses, subways, and trains tougher against floods, heat waves, wildfires, and other extreme weather. Money can pay for things like flood barriers, flood sensors, replacing flood‑prone equipment or facilities, drainage and pump upkeep tools, temperature controls and sensors, backup power, and planning and assessments to find weak spots. Grants can fund full stand‑alone projects or pieces of larger projects . The bill also raises authorized funding levels for these grants, increasing the amounts available under existing transit programs .

The Department must publish a yearly report on what got funded, with special tracking of projects that benefit low‑income neighborhoods, communities with high SNAP usage, underserved or medically underserved areas, and places flagged by EPA’s EJSCREEN for higher environmental burdens. This keeps attention on communities that face the greatest risks from climate and health harms .

Key points

• Who is affected: Transit riders, especially in communities facing flood, heat, wildfire, and power‑outage risks; agencies serving environmental justice, underserved, and medically underserved areas .
• What changes: Grants can directly fund resilience fixes and planning, including flood protection, temperature control, backup power, and system vulnerability studies; funds may support stand‑alone projects or parts of bigger upgrades .
• Oversight: DOT must publish an annual report listing funded activities and highlighting benefits in high‑need areas, using tools like EPA’s EJSCREEN to identify them .
• Funding: Authorizes higher funding levels to support these resilience activities within existing transit programs .