Findings

Congress finds that— (1) the United States is facing a housing availability and affordability crisis, marked by an inability of many citizens to find homes in their desired communities at a price affordable to them; (2) transit-oriented development benefits communities, transit agencies, and the people of the United States by improving access to transit, jobs, and services, spurring revitalization of neighborhoods and economic development, and boosting transit ridership; (3) the transportation infrastructure finance and innovation program under chapter 6 of title 23, United States Code (referred to in this section as the TIFIA program), and the railroad rehabilitation and improvement financing program under chapter 224 of title 49, United States Code (referred to in this section as the RRIF program), can help respond to the urgent need for additional housing by financing transit-oriented development projects with mixed use or housing components and have already been authorized to do so under the FAST Act (Public Law 114–94; 129 Stat. 1312); (4) if made more efficient, the transit-oriented development provisions of the TIFIA program and the RRIF program would offer attractive financing strategies that could be used to forge public-private partnerships to deliver accelerated housing production and improved economic development and community vitality near transit nodes nationwide; (5) improving the information available about the application process, shortening the underwriting timeline, improving internal deliberation processes and government efficiency, and executing the adjustments required to make transit-oriented development projects easier to finance through the program would benefit communities across the country, especially in smaller communities with less robust development environments; and (6) while significant administrative reforms have improved the programs, the Department of Transportation has been limited in its ability to facilitate such development under the constraints of the current law governing the TIFIA program and the RRIF program.