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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 119 / Thursday, June 24, 2021 / Notices
transit industry. Numerous transit providers have suspended service and a greater number have reduced service.
Yet, throughout the COVID19 public health emergency, transit agencies across the country continue to provide millions of trips to lifeline services, including transporting healthcare personnel and other essential workers on the front line of the Nations COVID
19 response. Transit agencies also offer additional essential services to support communities during the public health emergency, such as meal delivery and Wi-Fi access in underserved areas.
Many transit agencies are also serving a critical role in providing free or reduced-cost transportation to vaccination sites and appointments, and using their facilities and vehicles as vaccination sites. Accordingly, the U.S.
Department of Homeland Securitys Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency designates transit workers as essential critical infrastructure workers.
Transit agencies and other stakeholders have expressed concerns about the risk of COVID19 to the transit industry and, along with the FTA, have taken steps to address these concerns. Numerous transit agencies have implemented mitigations to limit the transmission of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID19, among their workers and within their systems.
Despite these efforts, frontline transit workers remain at high risk for workrelated exposure to SARS-CoV2
because their work-related duties must be performed on-site and involve being in close proximity <6 feet to the public or to coworkers. In addition, many transit workers fall within racial and socioeconomic demographics that are at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID19.
In December 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA issued Emergency Use Authorizations EUA
for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID19 vaccines, and in February 2021 issued an EUA for the Johnson &
Johnson Janssen COVID19 vaccine.
COVID19 vaccines are available to all individuals, 12 years and older, in every U.S. State and over half of eligible individuals have received at least one vaccine shot. However, challenges concerning vaccine access equity and vaccine confidence continue to pose obstacles to reaching national vaccination goals. As a result, it may take many months before sufficientlyhigh numbers of frontline transit workers will be vaccinated, though their communities will continue to rely on them to provide critical transportation
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services every dayincluding transportation to vaccination sites.
On January 21, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 13998 titled Promoting COVID19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel to save lives and allow all Americans, including the millions of people employed in the transportation industry, to travel and work safely, requiring immediate Federal action to mandate masks on public forms of transportation, including transit. On January 29, 2021, the CDC issued an Order requiring the wearing of masks by travelers, including on public transportation, to prevent spread of the virus that causes COVID19. The CDC
Order requires transportation operators to require that all persons wear masks when boarding, disembarking, and for the duration of travel, with certain exemptions. Operators of transportation hubs, which include bus terminals and subway stations, must require all persons to wear a mask when entering and on the premises of a transportation hub. Subsequently, the Transportation Security Administration TSA issued a Security Directive on February 1, 2021
that implements the CDC Order that is effective through September 13, 2021.
The FTA published a notice of request for emergency OMB approval on March 5, 2021. FTA created an information collection system for respondents to provide the required information to FTA. The system was opened to respondents on March 15, 2021 and the first reports were due on April 16, 2021.
The FTA plays a critical role in providing risk-based guidance and support for the COVID19 recovery efforts of the transit industry.
Accordingly, the FTA has required that respondents provide the following information using a fillable electronic online application: Transit Worker Counts: Total number of transit operators, other frontline essential personnel, and other workers during the reporting period.
COVID19 Impacts on Transit Agency Service Levels: Yes or no responses to indicate if the agency suspended service, reduced service, or operated at normal levels during the reporting period.
COVID19 Impacts on Transit Workforce: Cumulative counts of transit worker COVID19 positives, fatalities, recoveries, and unvaccinated employees during the reporting period, and yes or no responses on whether the agency is requiring workers to be vaccinated, whether the agency has implemented the CDC Order and TSA Security Directive requiring workers and passengers to wear masks, and whether
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the agency is using FTA funds to provide vaccine access services.
Summary of Comments Received FTA received comments to its notice of request for emergency OMB approval from eight respondents during the comment period.
Five respondents noted concerns with providing data on the number of vaccinated workers. FTA has clarified that while it expects all respondent agencies to collect and submit COVID
19 data for all transit workers, if an agency or its contractor is prohibited by State or local laws from collecting data on whether their employees have been vaccinated, the respondent should not include these workers in the Number of Workers Not Vaccinated field.
Further, the form allows agencies to leave this form blank in such a situation.
Two respondents noted concerns with collecting information on worker COVID19 cases, recoveries, and fatalities. Agencies should submit COVID19 data, to the extent that they are able to compile such information, for all workers employees and contractors that support the operation of the agency. FTA encourages agencies to report data based on their current knowledge and understanding of the COVID19 impacts on their organization.
Two respondents noted concerns with the feasibility of collecting and reporting, and the level of effort required to collect and report required data points. In an effort to reduce the burden on reporters, FTA has leveraged its existing Transit Integrated Appian Development Platform, the platform that hosts the National Transit Database NTD, to facilitate reporting through an online application. FTA also has made available a Recurring Form Template which was developed to assist Section 5311 recipients with collecting data on behalf of their subrecipients in support of the Transit COVID19 Response Program Information Collection online application. The template includes the same fields and options as the Recurring Form in the online application.
One respondent requested clarification on how FTA will handle late reports. Respondents may submit and/or revise their responses at any time in either the Baseline Form or the Recurring Form to address errors or if updated data becomes available.
One respondent requested the exclusion of Section 5311 subrecipients from the reporting requirement. The reporting requirement is a condition of FTA funding assistance.

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