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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 210 / Wednesday, November 3, 2021 / Notices
Fax: 202 4932251.
All submissions received must include the agency name and docket number FTA20210014. All comments received will be posted without change to www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. You may review the U.S. Department of Transportations DOT complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000
65 FR 19477.
For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to www.regulations.gov at any time and search for docket number FTA20210014.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program questions, Richie Nguyen, Office of Civil Rights, 202 3662689 or richie.nguyen@dot.gov. For legal questions, Bonnie Graves, Office of Chief Counsel, 202 3660944 or bonnie.graves@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: FTA Title VI Circular provides guidance to FTA recipients of Federal financial assistance on how to comply with requirements under Title VI and the DOT Title VI regulations, which prohibit discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs. The Title VI
Circular provides specific compliance information for each type of recipient:
Transit providers, States, and metropolitan planning organizations.
The Title VI Circular also provides several appendices, including additional guidance and examples to help ensure recipients fulfill the requirements. The Title VI Circular was last updated in 2012.
Under the Title VI Circular, direct and primary recipients submit a Title VI
Program demonstrating how the recipient is complying with Title VI
requirements to FTA once every three years or as otherwise directed by FTA.
FTA reviews Title VI Programs and their implementation through various oversight activities, including complaint investigations, Title VI Program Reviews, Specialized Title VI
Compliance Reviews, and as part of Triennial Reviews and State Management Reviews. For more information on the existing Title VI
Circular, please see https www.transit.
dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/ftacirculars/title-vi-requirements-andguidelines-federal-transit.
Through this request for information RFI, FTA seeks input to inform the development of changes to the existing Title VI Circular. The timing for publication of an update to the Title VI
Circular is not certain. FTA poses 13

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questions below and looks forward to feedback from all interested parties.
The Title VI Circular contains binding obligations, which 49 U.S.C. 5334k defines as a substantive policy statement, rule, or guidance document issued by the Federal Transit Administration that grants rights, imposes obligations, produces significant effects on private interests, or effects a significant change in existing policy. Under 49 U.S.C. 5334k, FTA
may issue binding obligations if it follows notice and comment rulemaking procedures under 5 U.S.C. 553.
Accordingly, prior to making any amendments that would create a new binding obligation or modify an existing one, FTA will follow such notice and comment rulemaking procedures.
Public Participation 1. The Title VI Circular currently requires recipients to submit and implement a public participation plan that includes an outreach plan to engage minority and limited English proficient LEP populations, as well as a summary of outreach efforts made since the last Title VI Program submission. In June 2021, U.S. DOT issued a revised Title VI
Order Number DOT 1000.12C on the U.S. DOT Title VI Program Order, which provides policy direction, practices, and standards to U.S. DOT
Operating Administrations, including FTA, for establishing and maintaining an enforcement program that ensures Title VI compliance. The Order requires FTA to develop comprehensive community participation requirements Community Participation Plan that applicants and recipients must satisfy as a condition of receiving an award of Federal financial assistance. The goal of the Community Participation Plan is to facilitate full compliance with Title VI
by requiring meaningful public participation and engagement to ensure that applicants and recipients are adequately informed about how programs or activities will potentially impact affected communities, and to ensure that diverse views are heard and considered throughout all stages of the consultation, planning, and decisionmaking process. The Order provides 10
effective practices that ensure proactive public engagement: establishment of goals and objectives, identification of affected communities, focused outreach, meaningful education, diverse communications, comprehensive engagement, meaningful participation, accessibility, reported outcomes, and recordkeeping. Which practices outlined in the Order should FTA
incorporate in its guidance on promoting inclusive public
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participation? Are there additional effective practices FTA should consider?
2. What effective public participation practices are transit agencies currently using? How is meaningful access to public participation activities provided to traditionally underserved communities? How is effectiveness defined and measured?
Service and Fare Equity Analyses 3. The Title VI Circular currently requires transit providers that operate 50 or more fixed route vehicles in peak service and are located in an Urbanized Area UZA of 200,000 or more in population to prepare and submit service and fare equity SAFE analyses as described in Chapter IV. These SAFE
analyses are conducted prior to implementing service or fare changes, but they are submitted to FTA as part of a recipients Title VI program once every three years. Due to this gap in time, FTA may not become aware of major service changes or fare changes and the related equity analyses until years after the changes have been made and the analyses conducted. Should FTA require a SAFE analysis be posted on a recipients website or submitted to FTA prior to the service or fare change being enacted, in addition to submission with the recipients Title VI program? If so, how soon after an analysis is conducted or before a change is approved or implemented should FTA
require posting or submission?
4. For major service change, disparate impact, and disproportionate burden thresholds, the Title VI Circular does not set values or limits. Regarding major service change thresholds, the Circular states, The threshold for analysis shall not be set so high so as to never require an analysis; rather, agencies shall select a threshold most likely to yield a meaningful result in light of the transit providers system characteristics.
Should FTA set a value or limit on major service change, disparate impact, or disproportionate burden thresholds?
If so, what should that value or limit beor what factors should be evaluated?
5. The Title VI Circular explains existing public participation requirements for development of major service change policies, disparate impact policies, and disproportionate burden policies. Should FTA address public participation where a transit provider finds a potential disparate impact or disproportionate burden, specifically with regard to analysis of modifications to avoid, minimize, or mitigate potential disparate impacts?

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