House Approps Committee Releases Earmark, Program Guidance for FY27 THUD Approps Bill
3/3/2026
House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) sent a Dear Colleague letter to Members of Congress, Feb. 25, announcing the beginning of the FY27 appropriations process. The letter provides detailed guidance outlining how Representatives can make Community Project Funding, programmatic, and language requests.
APTA strongly encourages its members to contact their Representative(s) and urge them to support specific projects and programs of importance to their agency.
It is very important for APTA members to engage Representative(s) as soon as possible to encourage them to submit their earmark and program priorities as part of the FY27 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations bill. Each Representative establishes individual deadlines for constituents to submit appropriations requests, and engaging Member of Congress early will ensure priorities have the best chance of being included in the bill. The deadline for Representatives to submit their public transit and passenger rail project requests is March 20.
There are three types of requests that Members of Congress can submit to the House Committee on Appropriations: Community Project Funding, programmatic, and language requests:
- Community Project Funding requests are for Congressionally Directed Spending (also known as earmarks) for specific projects. Representatives are permitted to submit up to 20 Community Project Funding requests in FY27.
- A Program Request seeks funding for a specific program or activity, such as requesting $4.6 billion for the Capital Investment Grant program (CIG).
- A Language Request seeks specific bill or report language, such as changes to statute.
View the House Committee on Appropriations General Guidance for Members of Congress for Community Project Funding Requests and Programmatic and Language Requests for all House Appropriations bills.
View the House THUD Appropriations Subcommittee Specific Guidance for Members of Congress for Transit Infrastructure Grants and Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) Grants.
View APTA’s Guidance for FY27 Programmatic Request for FTA’s Capital Investment Grants.
In FY26, Congress appropriated more than $235 million for specific public transit and rail projects in the 2026 THUD Appropriations Act. The legislation included $147.9 million for specific public transit projects and $87.4 million for specific railroad projects in FRA’s CRISI grant program. View the full list of FY26 Congressionally Directed Spending projects.
APTA’s Advocacy Tools
It has never been more important to make the case to Congress for public transportation investment. The APTA Industry Footprint and My Economic Impact tool are designed for APTA members to engage with their Members of Congress both on Capitol Hill and in their congressional districts and states.
APTA’s Industry Footprint shows how many riders use public transportation; recent major grant awards; and the manufacturing, construction, and engineering firms advancing public transportation projects in each congressional district and state.
The My Economic Impact tool uses a public transit agency’s budget data to calculate the economic impact of that agency’s transit service.