Pallone Announces NJ Transit is Saved from $50 Million Proposed Cut in Transportation Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2015


WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressmen Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced that New Jersey Transit will be saved from a $50 million cut due to an agreement that preserves the High Density States Program – known as the 5340 Program – in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015. Pallone is a member of the Conference Committee, which is made up of a bipartisan, bicameral set of Members negotiating between the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the legislation. The conference agreement on the surface transportation package will not include a House-passed attachment to the legislation that would have eliminated the 5340 Program. Elimination of the program would have cut federal public transportation funding to several states by approximately $263 million per year, including the cut to NJ Transit. Half of all transit users nationwide live in the seven states that would have been impacted.

“Saving New Jersey Transit from this potentially devastating cut has been a top priority of mine on the Conference Committee,” said Congressman Pallone. “The reversal of this cut to New Jersey Transit – the nation’s largest statewide public transportation system – is an important victory for our workers, our commuters, and our state. We now have the opportunity to produce and pass a final bill that simultaneously strengthens our economy and provides overdue repairs and improvements to our roads, bridges and entire transportation system.”

In addition to New Jersey, the amendment would have drastically cut federal public transportation funding to Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. It would have forced transit systems in these states to cut jobs, service, and maintenanc