Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman Pat Foye said the New York transit agency would accept a federal monitor in exchange for a $12 billion bailout to boost its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Foye told radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on "The Cats Roundtable" on Sunday that the agency would “absolutely” be willing to work with the Transportation Department’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA).
“We are not looking for, nor do we expect, a blank check. We realize that we’re going to have to show that we have these increased costs, and that revenues have been reduced significantly as a result of the pandemic. And we are prepared absolutely to do that with FTA when an MTA relief bill passes,” Foye said on WABC 770 AM.
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The MTA received $3.8 in the March CARES Act, and in July its leaders requested another $3.9 billion in the next coronavirus relief package. The House-passed relief bill included $15.7 billion for public transportation overall, but the Senate will not take up that measure.
The relief package’s top negotiators, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiPelosi, Biden slam Scalise for doctored video that altered activist's words Shutdown politics set to collide with coronavirus aid O'Rourke endorses Kennedy for Senate: 'A champion for the values we're most proud of' MORE (D-Calif.) and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows
Mark Randall MeadowsShutdown politics set to collide with coronavirus aid Meadows blames Pelosi 'fantasy objection' for impasse on coronavirus relief talks President's supporters, opponents paint dueling portraits of 'Donald Trump's America' MORE, have failed to break the impasse and make progress on a bipartisan bill.
Pelosi and Meadows had their first conversation in roughly three weeks on coronavirus relief on Thursday. Meadows described it afterward as “25 minutes of nothing," while Pelosi said Meadows had a "disregard" for suffering Americans.
Foye stressed on Sunday that the MTA needs more funding to making it through 2021.
“Our customers pay us about 50 percent of our revenue. That ridership decline has exacted significant damage to the MTA’s operating condition,” Foye said. “Right now we need $12 billion from the federal government to get us through the remainder of 2020 and 2021”
He added, however, that GOP leadership in the Senate "has been indifferent to the needs of the MTA.”
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Foye added that 10 percent of the total U.S. gross domestic product comes from the New York City region.
“It benefits the entire country,” he said.
The FTA oversaw safety aspects of Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail system from 2015 to 2019 before transferring oversight to a state program.
The MTA is North America’s largest transportation network and experienced a historic decline in March when ridership was down 90 percent. Foye said at the time that the MTA loses $800,000 a year between the lack of revenue and the increase in spending on sanitary measures.
John Catsimatidis is an investor in The Hill.
--This report was updated at 2:44 p.m.
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