May 22, 2018 The Honorable Richard Shelby ‘The Honorable Rodney Frelinghuysen Chairman Chairman Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations United States Senate United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Patrick Leahy The Honorable Nita Lowey Ranking Member Ranking Member Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations United States Senate United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20515 Dear Chairmen Shelby and Frelinghuysen and Ranking Members Leahy and Lowey: As the Chief Executives of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia (D.C.), we are writing to ask for your support to fully fund the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) annual appropriation provided in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA). As you know, the PRIIA funding committed to by the federal government and our jurisdictions provides nearly one-third of WMATA's capital budget and pays for projects that are critical to the system's safety and state of good repair. The annual $150 million from the federal government, combined with our $150 million in matching funds from Virginia, Maryland and D.C., is a critical piece of the rebuilding program underway at WMATA. As has been done every year since PRIIA was enacted and funds appropriated, we each pledge to continue our $50 million in matching funds. In addition to the PRIIA match and the capital subsidy funding we provide to support WMATA's capital program, we have recently passed legislation in all three jurisdictions providing $500 million in total dedicated funding. Since the Federal government is the fourth funding partner for WMATA, we ask that you provide the full $150 million in Federal fiscal year 2019. The importance of the WMATA system to the federal government is well documented. More than half of Metrorail stations serve federal facilities and approximately 40 percent of Metrorail’s peak period customers work for the federal government, including employees and contractors at defense agencies such as the Pentagon and thePage 2 Department of Homeland Security. The Metrorail and Metrobus systems have demonstrated multiple times how critical they are in a time of crisis for evacuation during weather events and national emergencies such as 9/11. People throughout the nation depend on “America's Subway” when visiting the capital or attending large national events such as the Cherry Blossom Festival and Presidential Inaugurations. WMATA is making steady progress on safety issues and returning the system to a state of good repair. The PRIIA funding, along with the local match has enabled WMATA to make progress in a number of key areas. WMATA has followed the NTSB recommendation directing them to remove all 1000-series railcars. In addition, WMATA, has achieved steady improvement in their railcar performance. As of March 2018, railcars, on average, traveled more than 113,000 miles before an incident occurred that delayed passenger travel. This was the second best month for railcar performance since WMATA started tracking the data 11 years ago and it is a 90 percent increase over the fleet performance just two years ago. WMATA is also making good progress on escalator replacement and rehabilitation, with Metro escalators in service 94 percent of the time WMATA has now completed more than two-thirds of their $151 million initiative to replace 130 escalators by the end of the decade. Nine months ago WMATA put in place a robust preventative maintenance plan that is critical to ensure safety and reliability of Metro's aging infrastructure. As a result of the work done over the past two years, WMATA has experienced a reduction in electrical fire incidents by six percent, the number of track defect incidents have been reduced by 35 percent, and emergency track work requests decreased by 59 percent. On the financial side there has been real, sustained progress. WMATA has now closed out all of the outstanding grants that were part of a 2014 Federal Financial Management Oversight review. This has resulted in a new grant management system, stronger financial controls, and clean audits. We appreciate the PRIIA funding that has been provided thus far and we commit that every dollar of PRIIA funding you provide will be matched by funding from our jurisdictions and invested in safety and state of good repair projects. We ask that Congress continue to fund WMATA at the $150 million level in fiscal year 2019. Sincerely, mr DE Vo Muriel Bowser Larry Hogan Ralph Northam Mayo) Governor Governor