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119-s-2299119th CongressWALLET

Resilient Transit Act of 2025

Sponsored By: Senator Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY]

Introduced

Summary

A new federal grant program for public transportation resilience would fund upgrades to protect buses, trains, stations, and equipment from sea level rise, flooding, wildfires, extreme heat, and other climate-driven disasters, with an equity focus on environmental justice and underserved communities.

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  • State and local transit agencies would be able to apply for grants to pay for resilience work such as flood intrusion barriers, flood detection systems, backup power, drainage maintenance, and temperature‑resilient equipment; grants can fund entire projects or components.
  • Environmental justice and underserved communities would be prioritized in project work and reporting, using EPA EJSCREEN and other indexes to identify neighborhoods with high poverty, heavy SNAP use, medically underserved areas, or disproportionate climate risks.
  • The Department of Transportation would publish an annual report to Congress and online listing projects, equity outcomes, project details, and recommendations to improve program administration.

*Would raise two transit authorization lines by about $300 million each (to $14.9 billion and $4.2 billion) and set aside $300 million for FY2026 to support the new resilience grants, increasing authorized federal transit spending.*

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.

More federal money for transit resilience

If enacted, this bill would increase federal transit funding and set aside money for resilience. It would raise an authorization line to $14.942 billion and another to $4.150 billion. It would make a $300 million set-aside for fiscal year 2026 to fund resilience grants. Of the money for resilience, 97.15% would be apportioned to subsection (c) recipients and 2.85% to subsection (d).

New transit resilience grants and rules

If enacted, the bill would create a Public Transportation Resilience Improvement Grants program at the Department of Transportation. Grants would help state and local transit agencies pay for flood protection, backup power, temperature controls, drainage and pumps, vulnerability assessments, planning, and other resilience work. The bill would define "resilience improvement" to match an existing definition in Title 23, guiding eligible projects. The Secretary would target and report on projects that benefit environmental justice, underserved, and medically underserved communities and must publish an annual report starting within one year.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY]

NY • D

Cosponsors

  • Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT]

    VT • D

    Sponsored 7/16/2025

  • Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]

    NJ • D

    Sponsored 7/16/2025

  • Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]

    CT • D

    Sponsored 7/16/2025

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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