"As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address, we must win the future by investing in a modern transportation network that will enable us to out-compete the rest of the world," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "The projects we are proposing to Congress are an important down payment on the president's promise to strengthen our transportation networks for the 21st century."

The spending plan included in Obama's budget submitted to Congress on Monday recommends investing $569 million in 10 new transit construction projects including rail and bus rapid transit in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington state. An additional 11 projects that were recommended for funding in previous years, but have not yet received federal commitments, are also being slated for $1.4 billion in next fiscal year's budget for the capital program known as "New Starts."

In addition to the new transit projects, the budget proposes $835 million for the continued funding of seven additional rail transit projects already operational or under construction in New York, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Northern Virginia.

Several additional projects that might become ready for federal funding during FY 2012 were mentioned as possible candidates for $400 million that is included in the president's budget for capital transit projects. These include the Westside Subway Extension ("Subway to the Sea") and the Regional Connector Transit Corridor in Los Angeles; the Columbia River Crossing in the Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, region; and the Blue Line Extension in Charlotte, North Carolina.

All these recommendations are part of FTA's Annual Report on Funding Recommendations for Fiscal Year 2012, which is available at bit.ly/NewStarts2012.