DMP has been significantly involved in assisting the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) develop and implement its Tribal Transit Program (TTP) Technical Assistance Assessments. The FTA TTP was created in 2006 by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), and substantially expanded in 2012 under authorizing legislation Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). Since FY 2006, FTA has awarded more than $100 million in TTP grants directly to Indian tribes. Additionally, Indian tribes have received over $30 million in other direct FTA grants (e.g., TIGER, ARRA, and Section 5309) and nearly $50 million in grants as subrecipients to the States.
In 2010, FTA initiated the Tribal Transit Assessment Pilot Program (TTAPP) to provide oversight, monitoring, and technical assistance to tribal transit grant recipients. FTA engaged the services of DMP to develop a Tribal Transit Assessment guidance book for use by contractors to conduct oversight reviews of tribal transit grant recipients; contractor assessment worksheets; standard operating procedures (SOP’s); and templates for site visit notification letters and draft and final reports. In addition, on behalf of FTA, DMP conducted five of the initial 10 pilot tribal transit assessments under the new program.
Since 2010, DMP has provided training directly to over 200 tribal government employees involved in implementing tribal transit programs, from Alaska to North Carolina. DMP has also participated in numerous National Tribal Transportation Conferences and has participated in the tribal consultive process by attending several U.S. DOT listening sessions to obtain feedback on proposed DOT programs and regulations.
After the success of the TTAPP, in FY 2015 the Tribal Transit Program Technical Assistance Assessment (TTP Assessment) program was initiated by FTA to assess whether direct recipients of TTP grant funding would benefit from technical assistance in administering the FTA funded programs, and to provide that technical assistance, as necessary. Areas of TTP grantee assessment and technical assistance include: Legal, Technical Capacity, Grant Administration, Financial Management, National Transit Database, Asset Management, Procurement, Buy America, Charter Bus, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Drug and Alcohol Program. DMP was selected by FTA to perform the first 15 assessments under the new TTP Assessment program.
