Congresswoman Newman helps secure $118 million in grant funding for Chicago Transit Authority

New funding to keep workers on the payroll and help pay for day-to-day operations as they continue to provide essential transit services to Chicagoland residents

U.S. Representative Marie Newman (IL-03) announced that she has helped secure an additional $118 million in grant funding to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

As part of the American Rescue Plan Additional Assistance funding, the new grant will go towards keeping thousands of transit workers on the payroll and paying for day-to-day operations as they continue to provide essential transit services in the Chicagoland region.

“Throughout the entirety of this pandemic, our public transit workers have been on the frontlines of keeping our economy on the right track by ensuring Americans can get where they need to go,” said Congresswoman Newman.

“Thanks to the American Rescue Plan that I helped pass, more funding is being sent to transit agencies like the CTA so that we can keep our transit workers on the payroll and continue to provide the excellent services that our residents and visitors rely on every single day.”

Congresswoman Marie Newman, 3rd District Illinois

CTA employs approximately 10,600 workers, who provided nearly 200 million trips in 2020. The ARP funds will support jobs across the Chicago metro area and allow CTA to continue providing low-carbon transportation service critical to the region’s 8.6 million residents.

The CTA is one of 35 recipients in 18 states that have received a portion of the $2.2 billion total from the American Rescue Plan. The funding is being provided to transit agencies that demonstrated a need for additional financial support to cover expenses related to day-to-day operations, cleaning and sanitization, combating the spread of pathogens on transit systems and retaining employees.

Last month, Congresswoman Newman announced that she helped secure more than $1 billion in American Rescue Plan funds for theChicago Transit Authority and the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation (Metra).

The American Rescue Plan included $30.5 billion in federal funding to support the nation’s public transportation systems as they continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this announcement, 99% of this funding has been allocated to support continued public transit operations and the continuity of transit projects. The final remaining allocation of $25 million in planning grants will be announced soon.

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Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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