49 U.S.C. § 24319 — Grant process and reporting

(a) Procedures for Grant Requests — The Secretary of Transportation must: (1) set and keep up rules and schedules for how Amtrak requests grants under this section; and (2) tell four congressional committees about any changes to those rules.

(b) Grant Requests — Amtrak must send the Secretary a grant request every year, or more often if needed, for the federal money Congress has given the Secretary to pass on to Amtrak.

(c) Contents — (1) In general: each grant request must, where it applies, (A) sort the federal money and program income Amtrak plans to use next year for the Northeast Corridor and National Network into the categories below; (B) describe the operations, services, programs, and projects to be funded in each category, including their expected scope, schedule, and budget, and the performance measures used to quantify expected and actual project outcomes and benefits, aggregated by fiscal year, project milestone, and any other appropriate grouping; and (C) describe how Amtrak is working to improve its safety culture. (2) Grant categories: (A) Operating expenses — must include estimated net operating costs not covered by other Amtrak revenue, broken down by service line and itemized by route. (B) Debt service — covers spending on debt, including principal and interest, as allowed under section 205 of the 2008 Act. (C) Capital — must include capital projects mainly falling into: (i) normalized capital replacement — regular recurring maintenance of assets like track and signals; (ii) improvement projects for service and safety upgrades, done to a fixed scope, schedule, and budget; (iii) backlog capital replacement — fixing major assets like tunnels, bridges, and stations to reduce the maintenance backlog; (iv) strategic initiative projects that improve performance, cut costs, or boost efficiency; and (v) projects required by law or regulation. (D) Contingency — must include the contingency amounts set aside for operating and capital expenses and a process for using them. (3) The Secretary and Amtrak can jointly agree to change these categories if doing so would improve transparency, oversight, or delivery of the projects.

(d) Review and Approval — (1) Thirty-day approval process: (A) Within 30 days of getting a complete grant request, the Secretary must finish reviewing it and tell Amtrak whether it's approved or, if not, why, and what's missing. (B) If approved, the Secretary must sign a grant agreement with Amtrak. (2) Amtrak has 15 days after a disapproval notice to submit a modified request. (3) The Secretary then has 15 more days to approve the fixed request — or, if the Secretary finds that the request is still incomplete or deficient, to identify in writing to the four congressional committees the remaining deficiencies and recommend a process for resolving the outstanding portions of the request.

(e) Payments to Amtrak — (1) A grant agreement must spell out exactly what it funds, matching the categories in the grant request, and must include ways to measure Amtrak's performance and hold it accountable. (2) Except as noted in (3), for each year Congress funds Amtrak and a grant agreement is in place, the Secretary must pay Amtrak on this schedule: (A) 50% on October 1; (B) 25% on January 1; and (C) 25% on April 1. (3) The Secretary can pay differently — (A) using another reasonable method if the Secretary and Amtrak agree it works better for a project; (B) more often than scheduled if Amtrak has a good reason to ask for it before a payment period ends; or (C) with different timing or amounts during a continuing resolution or when there's no full-year appropriations law.

(f) Availability of Amounts and Early Appropriations — Money Congress gives the Secretary for Amtrak stays available until it's spent. Amounts for capital acquisitions and improvements may be appropriated for a fiscal year before the fiscal year in which the amounts will be obligated.

(g) Limitations on Use — This federal money can't be used to cover operating losses or capital costs of commuter rail or freight rail transportation.

(h) Applicable Laws and Regulations — (1) Despite what sections 24301(a)(3) and 7501(a)(13) of title 31 say, Amtrak counts as a "non-Federal entity" for the Single Audit Act rules in chapter 75 of title 31. (2) The Secretary may apply some or all of the standard federal grant-management, cost, and audit rules to Amtrak.

(i) Amtrak Grant Reporting — The Secretary decides how much detail Amtrak's reports on operations, services, projects, program income, cash on hand, and other activities need to include, for each grant category.

(j) Definition of Northeast Corridor — For this section only, "Northeast Corridor" means the main rail line between Boston and Washington, D.C., plus the facilities and services used to run and maintain it — regardless of how section 24102 defines it elsewhere.