The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 dramatically altered the nation's system for providing assistance to the poor. Among the many changes, the act replaced the existing entitlement program for poor families (Aid to Families With Dependent Children) with fixed block grants to the states to provide Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF imposes work requirements on adults and establishes time limits on the receipt of federal assistance. However, for welfare recipients trying to move from welfare to work, a lack of transportation to the places of employment can pose significant barriers. Existing public transportation systems cannot always transport low-income people from their homes to the entry-level jobs they would likely fill. Many of these jobs are located in suburbs beyond the reach of public transportation, or they require shift work in the evenings or on weekends when public transportation is unavailable or limited.

The United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) is taking a bold step in dealing with metropolitan area congestion by promoting and funding demonstrations of congestion pricing and other strategies aimed at reducing congestion. The key policy question is the effectiveness of these strategies. An evaluation is designed to answer this question by measuring the benefits, impacts and value of each metropolitan area's approach to congestion reduction. In addition, evaluation of multiple sites will demonstrate how well the strategies perform under different situations. This book addresses congressional interest in how well the Department of Transportation communicated Urban Partnership Agreements (UPA) selection criteria, whether it had discretion to allocate grant funds to UPA recipients and consider congestion pricing as a priority selection factor, and how it is ensuring that UPA award conditions are met and results are assessed. This book reviewed departmental documents, statutes and case law, and interviewed department officials and UPA applicants. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

The Job Access and Reverse Commute Program (JARC) -- admin. by the Fed. Transit Admin. (FTA) -- awards grants to states and localities to provide transport. to help low-income individuals access jobs. In 2005, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act -- A Legacy for Users reauthorized the program and made changes, such as allocating funds by formula to large and small urban and rural areas through designated recipients, usually transit agencies and states. This report examines: (1) the extent to which FTA has awarded JARC funds for FY 2006 through 2008, and how recipients are using the funds; (2) challenges faced by recipients in implementing the program; and (3) FTA's plans to evaluate the program. Illus.