Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 30, February 16, 2010, Pages 7027-7148 Page: 7,065

Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 30 / Tuesday, February 16, 2010 / Notices

allocation plus two additional years.
Accordingly, funds for projects selected
in FY 2006 or prior years are no longer
available for obligation in a grant and
will be reallocated in the competition
for FY 2009 funds. FY 2007 and FY
2008 funds were allocated on August
22, 2008 and will be reallocated if not
obligated in a grant by September 30,
2010. Funds for project selections
announced in FY 2010 will be
reallocated if not obligated in a grant by
September 30, 2012.
4. Other Program or Apportionment
Related Information and Highlights
FTA will publish a NOFA soliciting
applications for FY 2010 in a
subsequent notice once the full funding
level is made available to the program.
The notice will be available at http://
www.fta. dot.gov/laws/
leg regfederal_register.html.
S. Transit Investments for Greenhouse
Gas and Energy Reduction
The Appropriations Act 2010
provides $75,000,000 to continue the
Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas
and Energy Reduction (TIGGER)
program. TIGGER, initially funded
under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides
grants to public transit agencies for
capital investments that will reduce the
energy consumption or greenhouse gas
emissions of their public transportation
systems. As required by the
Appropriations Act 2010, FTA will
publish a Notice of Funding Availability
in the Federal Register on or after
March 18, 2010, announcing program
requirements and soliciting project
proposals. FTA will announce project
selections on or after September 15,
2010.
T. Washington Metropolitan Area
Transit Authority Grants
Section 601 of the Passenger Rail
Investment and Improvement Act of
2008 provides $150,000,000 in funding
for grants to the Washington
Metropolitan Transit Authority,
WMATA, See, Public Law 110-432,
Division B, Title VI., Grants may be
provided for capital and preventive
maintenance expenditures for WMATA
after it has been determined that
WMATA has placed the highest priority
on investments that will improve the
safety of the system, including but not
limited to fixing the track signal system,
replacing 1000 series cars, installing
guarded turnouts, buying equipment for
wayside worker protection, and
installing rollback protection on cars
that are not equipped with the safety

feature. FTA will communicate further

program requirements directly to
WMATA.
V. FTA Policy and Procedures for FY
2010 Grants
A. Automatic Pre-Award Authority To
Incur Project Costs
1. Caution to New Grantees and
Grantees Using Innovative Financing
While we provide pre-award authority
to incur expenses before grant award for
many projects, we recommend that first-
time grant recipients not utilize this
automatic pre-award authority and wait
until the grant is actually awarded by
FTA before incurring costs. As a new
grantee, it is easy to misunderstand pre-
award authority conditions and not be
aware of all of the applicable FTA
requirements that must be met in order
to be reimbursed for project
expenditures incurred in advance of
grant award. FTA programs have
specific statutory requirements that are
often different from those for other
Federal grant programs with which new
grantees may be familiar. If funds are
expended for an ineligible project or
activity, FTA will be unable to
reimburse the project sponsor and, in
certain cases, the entire project may be
rendered ineligible for FTA assistance.
Grantees proposing to use innovative
financing techniques or capital leasing
are required to consult with the
applicable FTA Regional Office (see
Appendix A) before entering into the
financial agreement-especially where
the grantee expects to use Federal funds
for debt service or capital lease
payments. Consulting with FTA before
entering into the agreement allows FTA
to advise the project sponsor of any
applicable Federal regulations, such as
the Capital Leasing Regulation, and will
minimize the risk of the costs being
ineligible for reimbursement at a later
date.
2. Policy
FTA provides pre-award authority to
incur expenses before grant award for
certain program areas described below.
This pre-award authority allows
grantees to incur certain project costs
before grant approval and retain the
eligibility of those costs for subsequent
reimbursement after grant approval. The
grantee assumes all risk and is
responsible for ensuring that all
conditions are met to retain eligibility.
This pre-award spending authority
permits a grantee to incur costs on an
eligible transit capital, operating,
planning, or administrative project
without prejudice to possible future
Federal participation in the cost of the

project. In the Federal Register Notice

of November 30, 2006, FTA extended
pre-award authority for capital
assistance under all formula programs
through FY 2009, the duration of
SAFETEA-LU. In the FY 2009
Apportionment notice, FTA extended
pre-award authority for formula funds
through FY 2010. In this notice, FTA
extends pre-award authority through FY
2011 for capital assistance under all
formula programs. FTA provides pre-
award authority for planning and
operating assistance under the formula
programs without regard to the period of
the authorization. In addition, we
extend pre-award authority for certain
discretionary programs based on the
annual Appropriations Act each year.
All pre-award authority is subject to
conditions and triggers stated below:
a. FTA does not impose additional
conditions on pre-award authority for
operating, planning, or administrative
assistance under the formula grant
programs. Grantees may be reimbursed
for expenses incurred before grant
award so long as funds have been
expended in accordance with all
Federal requirements. In addition to
cross-cutting Federal grant
requirements, program specific
requirements must be met. For example,
a planning project must have been
included in a Unified Planning Work
Program (UPWP); a New Freedom
operating assistance project or a JARC
planning or operating project must have
been derived from a coordinated public
transit-human services transportation
plan (coordinated plan) and
competitively selected by the
Designated Recipient before incurring
expenses; expenditure on State
Administration expenses under State
Administered programs must be
consistent with the State Management
Plan. Designated Recipients for JARC
and New Freedom have pre-award
authority for the ten percent of the
apportionment they may use for
program administration, if the use is
consistent with their Program
Management Plan.
b. Pre-Award authority for
Alternatives Analysis planning projects
under 49 U.S.C. 5339 is triggered by the
publication of the allocation in FTA's
Federal Register Notice of
Apportionments and Allocations
following the annual Appropriations
Act, or announcement of additional
discretionary allocations. The projects
must be included in the UPWP of the
MPO for that metropolitan area.
c. Pre-award authority for design and
environmental work on a capital project
is triggered by the authorization of
formula funds, or the appropriation of

funds for a discretionary project.

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