Description
---A full description of this provision and application instructions are available in the synopsis posted with this notice and on the FTA website.--- As stated in FTA's FY 2012 Notice of Apportionments, published January 11, 2012: The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (Pub. L. 112-055) permits FTA to treat fuel costs for vehicle operations, including utility costs for the propulsion of electrical vehicles, as a capital maintenance item for grants made in FY 2012 under the Urbanized Area Formula Program, up to a total of $100,000,000. The treatment of these costs as capital maintenance items means that they may be eligible for reimbursement under this program at an 80/20 matching rate. As explained in the preceding section, fuel costs are also eligible for reimbursement as an operating expense for UZAs under 200,000 in population, and under other special conditions noted above, but require a 50 percent match. Since total obligations for this purpose are limited to $100,000,000, the use of funds for this purpose will be limited in amount, and will be available only to program recipients that respond to this announcement. Designated recipients for each Urbanized Area are directed to respond to this announcement with the dollar amount, out of their annual urbanized area apportionment funding, that they would like to apply to these costs for grants made in Fiscal Year 2012. While this provision applies to grants made during FY 2012, it is not limited to grants made using FY 2012 apportioned funds and may also include grants made during FY 2012 that contain prior year funds. Recipients are directed to submit a request for the maximum dollar amount that they would elect to apply to capitalized fuel or propulsion under this provision based on the anticipated availability of full FY 2012 funding. Funds will be distributed as dollar caps for specific activities for an interested urbanized areas Section 5307 apportionment. FTA will base the amount of the cap it allocates to each urbanized area that responds to the announcement on a fixed percentage applied to the Section 5307 apportionment of that urbanized area, not to exceed the amount requested. However, if all urbanized area 5307 recipients respond to the announcement, each could expect to be permitted to use no more than 2.2% of their annual formula apportionment amount for this purpose. Eligible respondents to this request are only the designated recipients for the urbanized area formula apportionment, including the State DOTs for areas under 200,000. The upcoming funding announcement will provide further direction. FTA will publish the distribution in a Federal Register notice.Recipients are advised that this provision does not provide any funding in addition to their Section 5307 program apportionment. Funds granted under this provision will be treated as an alternative use of the eligible recipients formula funding. Distribution of such funds among sub-recipients is subject to Federal planning requirements and will require coordination between the designated recipient(s), MPO, and other direct recipients of FTA funds. Funds sub-allocated to direct recipients within a UZA will be included in their FTA grants. Procurements to which these 5307 funds are applied must comply with Federal procurement requirements and include all applicable Federal procurement clauses. Recipients, if selected to use this provision, will be required to obligate funds no later than September 30, 2012. Once funds are obligated, they will remain available until expended; funds can be requested for the applicants current fiscal year plus one additional year. FTA does not plan to reallocate funding caps under this provision after it has been initially distributed.Eligible designated recipients of Section 5307 funding that are interested in using funds under this provision are encouraged to become familiar with using grants.gov and are advised to monitor the site for the upcoming solicitation of interest. In addition, FTA recommends that grantees register for email updates on the Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program the FTA website.