This advertisement ran in the September 8, 2003 issue of APTA’s Passenger Transport magazine.

September 1, 2003

Dear Fellow APTA Members:

We are taking this unusual step of reaching out to you via this advertisement to make you aware of a profound issue, which will affect all public mass transit authorities in the United States. At issue is an attempt by less than 1% of APTA’s membership to radically alter the Buy America provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act through proposed legislation and pending litigation filed against the FTA in federal court. If successful, the proposed legislation will cost public transit authorities tens of millions of dollars by stifling competition in the United States and by imposing new administrative burdens on the procurement process.

The legislative language would: impose unprecedented statutory restrictions on the procurement of a wide range of technology by transit providers; usurp the FTA’s statutory authority to grant waivers for microcomputers; and provide an express right to bring a Federal lawsuit challenging Buy America decisions. The legislative language would drastically expand Buy America restrictions to every “manufactured item” and all of its component parts procured in connection with a project funded to any degree by an FTA grant regardless of whether the item was merely a subcomponent, or sub-subcomponent of the procurement. FTA and transit authorities would be accountable for source verification of literally thousands of items regardless of value or function.

The proposed legislative language would undercut decades of FTA precedent, create market barriers for potential suppliers and impose substantial administrative burdens on transit agencies.

We strongly urge you to immediately object to the proposed legislation, which was approved by the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Transportation and Treasury in July.

Please make your voice heard. Contact the coalition at director@smartcompetition.org

Respectfully yours,

Coalition for Smart Competition

Paid for by the Coalition for Smart Competition.
For more information on this issue or how you can help, please contact: director@smartcompetition.org