Legislation Would Authorize Additional Funding for Resilience Improvement Projects for Public Transportation Systems, Making Them More Reliable in the Event of Extreme Weather
Today, United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, and Representative Adriano Espaillat announced the Resilient Transit Act of 2025. The legislation would provide a dedicated stream of federal funding to strengthen the resilience of the United States’ public transportation systems as extreme weather events become more common.
This legislation would authorize an additional $300 million from the mass transit account of the Highway Trust Fund for Fiscal Year 2026 for resilience improvement grants and apportion those funds in accordance with the existing State of Good Repair Grants Program formula. Recipients of the grant would be able to use the funds to finance standalone resilience improvement projects or resilience improvement components of larger projects carried out under the State of Good Repair Grants Program. Resilience improvement projects include the use of structural and nonstructural techniques to better anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to extreme weather events precipitated by climate change, including earthquakes, sea level rise, heat waves, and floods.
“Public transportation systems already lack sufficient resilience funding, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events precipitated by climate change will disrupt and damage future public transit function,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Public transit ridership continues to increase year over year, thereby increasing the necessity of functioning public transit systems. I am committed to improving the reliability of public transit for the millions of Americans who rely on it each and every year.”
“The Resilient Transit Act of 2025 establishes the first-ever dedicated funding stream to proactively strengthen our transit systems, while working to make them more durable in the face of extreme weather and climate-driven threats,” said Representative Espaillat. “I’m proud to join Senator Gillibrand to introduce this critical piece of legislation once again, ensuring our infrastructure not only withstands storms today but continues to serve communities tomorrow. Together, we are committed to investing in public transit and safeguarding the lifeblood of cities around the nation.”
Senator Gillibrand and Representative Espaillat first introduced the Resilient Transit Act in 2022 and reintroduced the bill in 2023. Additionally, Senator Gillibrand passed portions of her Resilient Highways Act as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, including provisions to relocate and raise roads out of zones at risk of floods or slides and construct protective infrastructure to mitigate flood risk.
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