Rail Service Operating Payments Appropriation, FY 1979: Applicable Allocation Formula

The House Committee on Public Works and Transportation requested an opinion on the conflict over the method to distribute $75 million, which was earmarked from within a larger appropriation for urban formula grants to the Urban Mass Transportation Administration for rail service operating payments. The substantive legislative authority governing the distribution of these funds at the time the appropriation was enacted was repealed 10 weeks later. A new distribution formula, much broader in scope, was enacted at that time. The important difference between the distribution formula in existence at the time of the appropriation and the new formula is that the former considered only rail service passenger miles while the latter included an additional non-rail component, fixed guideway systems. The question was whether the new formula applied to the earlier enacted appropriation as a whole, in part, or only prospectively. It was held that the new formula is not neccessarily controlling as to the $75 million appropriated before its enactment and that the agency is not required to fund the allocation to non-rail fixed guideways.