Federal Transit Formula Grants in District of Columbia

Eight awards carry more than two billion dollars

This tie keeps USAspending rows where CFDA 20.507 meets District of Columbia place of performance. The dollar book is $2,057,360,847. The award count is 8. Formula transit assistance often posts as a small number of large urbanized-area grants rather than thousands of project-level actions. The join still does not prove that the District received the money because of congestion, farebox recovery, or a particular capital plan this packet does not list.

CFDA 20.507 is the Federal Transit Formula Grants line in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. Recipients are typically transit agencies and designated recipients. This packet does not name those recipients or split the 8 rows by bus, rail, or preventive-maintenance object class. Correlation is not causation.

WMATA board minutes, National Transit Database ridership, and District DOT capital budgets are other files. They are not this extract. A reader who treats $2,057,360,847 as the District’s entire transportation budget has left the CFDA-by-state definition. The 8 figure is a record count, including modifications in the extract, not a count of routes or stations.

What the implied mean does and does not say

Eight awards under $2,057,360,847 imply a mean near $257,170,106 per award. That quotient is expected for urban formula transit but remains a blend. One large multi-year grant can dwarf smaller amendments. The packet has no median and no year-by-year split.

Low award counts with high dollars are a signature of formula block assistance, not evidence of a single construction contract. Cite both columns. USAspending.gov is the source; SpendingVault does not recast the mean as a typical bus-purchase invoice.

Questions

How much Federal Transit Formula Grant spending is in DC?

USAspending.gov shows $2,057,360,847 in CFDA 20.507 obligations coded to the District of Columbia across 8 awards. The join uses the program number and DC place of performance. The total is obligations, not outlays.

Why are there only 8 awards for more than $2 billion?

Formula transit assistance often posts as a few large designated-recipient grants. The extract counts 8 award records tagged to CFDA 20.507 and the District. The implied mean is about $257,170,106 per award from the two packet facts. That mean is not a typical invoice.

Is $2.06 billion the District’s full federal spending?

No. $2,057,360,847 is only the Federal Transit Formula Grants cell. Other CFDA programs with DC place of performance sit on the statewide hub. CFDA 20.507 nationwide is not limited to the District.

Do these obligations equal cash spent on Metro?

No. $2,057,360,847 is an obligation sum. Outlays are a different USAspending series. The packet does not identify WMATA or any other recipient by name.