How the Federal Transit Administration Works

Last week, we talked to Stephanie Pollack about salvaging a transit project in danger of failure — it was the first in a set of interviews we’re running on transit. Today, we’re zooming out further, and looking at how the federal government funds local transit.

Peter Rogoff spent 22 years as a staffer on the most powerful Senate committee, the Appropriations Committee (on the Democratic side). “Approps” determines discretionary spending for agencies, and for most of his time there, Rogoff was the most senior Dem staffer.

Rogoff worked on three transportation reauthorization bills (in ‘95, ‘98, and ‘05), the bills that determine how money will be distributed to transit agencies across the country. In 2008, Rogoff was a key player in introducing the idea of making new funding available to “multi-modal” transportation projects — projects that benefit multiple types of transportation. The next transportation reauthorization process is coming up in 2026, and I thought it’d be valuable to better understand how that bill comes together.

But Rogoff doesn’t just have experience budgeting: the following year, Rogoff was appointed as head of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), where he served for five years. More recently, he’s been the CEO of Sound Transit, the Seattle transit agency.

I didn’t agree with Peter on everything in this conversation (which was recorded in February), and he’s taken his fair share of criticism, but it’s hard to find a figure in American life who has spent more time thinking about federal transit policy.

We discussed:

* What does the FTA do?

* Why don’t transit agencies control their spending?

* How do you win Senate funding fights?

* Why are streetcars terrible?

The full transcript is available at www.statecraft.pub.