Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970


The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970 added to the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 by authorizing an additional $12 billion of the same type of matching funds.
The laws, while the first major federal investments in urban transit, have been criticized both for going too far and not going far enough. It is also thought that these capital funds distorted the priorities of transit agencies to building new capital projects rather than more cost effective projects that required less capital outlay. Thus since the 1970s the United States has seen a large number of new rail starts while bus service continues to deteriorate.
Earlier legislative attempts at establishing a federal transit funding program were opposed by labor unions because they did not protect unionized workers, and thus failed to gain sufficient support in Congress. The unions feared that public entities would take over failing privately held transportation companies and cease to recognize the union. The version that finally did pass included provisions that require public entities receiving federal transit money to enter into protective agreements that would be approved by the Department of Labor. The Secretary of Labor must certify that the transit authority has made a "fair and equitable" labor protective arrangement before the authority can receive assistance.
Although the Federal Government is prohibited from dictating labor standards of public employees directly, it can use the "power of the purse" and refuse to grant funds to states who don't enter into these protective arrangements.