Medium Transit Intensive Cities Authorization Act of 2026

Key Points

• This bill creates a new way for medium-sized cities to get federal transit money. It targets cities with populations between 200,000 and 1 million people that have very busy or efficient bus and train systems.
• To get the extra money, these medium cities must perform as well as or better than the average big city with over 1 million people. Performance is measured by things like how many miles passengers travel and how often people use the transit system compared to the city's population.
• The plan sets aside 1.5 percent of certain federal transit funds specifically for these high-performing medium cities. This helps reward smaller cities that provide high-quality transit services despite having fewer residents than major hubs like New York or Chicago.
• The Department of Transportation will use data from a national database to decide which cities qualify each year. This ensures the money goes to places where people are actually using public transportation frequently.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.