
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments have approved the Final 2025 Joint Advocacy Program, expressing the agencies’ state and federal legislative priorities for the calendar year.
The number one advocacy priority in 2025 will be to secure new revenues for transit operations to sustain critical services and support a reliable, safe, easy-to-navigate and integrated transit network, including through securing legislative authorization for a regional transportation revenue measure in 2026.
To advance the region’s housing affordability goals, the agencies will also sponsor legislation to empower voters to place a regional housing revenue measure on the ballot via signature gathering.
Additional state advocacy priorities include support for forward-looking policy changes as well as maintaining existing funding for the transportation and housing strategies outlined in Plan Bay Area 2050, the adopted long-range regional plan for transportation, housing, the economy and the environment.
Specific priorities include:
- Extending housing and transit funding through California’s Cap-and-Trade program past 2030 and ensuring the state honors transit funding commitments from the 2023-24 state budget agreement.
- Engaging in a holistic review of California’s regional transportation and land use planning framework to improve state and regional collaboration on the suite of shared climate, housing and transportation-related goals.
- Coordinating with partners on the Resilient State Route 37 program to support a legislative change that will allow the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to process a fully protected species “incidental take” permit for the SR 37 corridor pursuant to the California Endangered Species Act.
- Monitoring proposals and engaging in discussions related to statutory updates that would impact future Bay Area Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycles.
- Supporting new and continued policies to improve the public transit network through the implementation of the recommendations of the Transit Transformation Action Plan.
- Improving the effectiveness of the transportation system as a whole, including Bay Area Toll Authority toll bridge operations, FasTrak® and Clipper® payment systems, Freeway Service Patrol, Express Lanes and high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and other transit priority improvements.
- Supporting the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority's 3Ps work: housing production, preservation and tenant protections.
- Pursuing strategies to speed up the delivery of transportation projects and reduce their costs.
- Elevating funding and policy strategies to help achieve and better coordinate state and regional climate and environmental conservation goals.
On the federal side, advocacy priorities include:
- Supporting and defending robust federal investment in Bay Area transportation and housing infrastructure consistent with MTC’s Bay Area Infrastructure Grants Strategy, Plan Bay Area 2050 and Major Project Advancement Policy.
- Engaging with local, regional, state and national partners to build a coalition to support reauthorization of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for 2026.
- Preserving California’s access to federal transit funds, including the Bay Area’s core transit and highway formula funds.
- Engaging in discussions related to the federal government’s role in transit operations, guided by the following principles:
-Focus on transit riders.
-Maintain federal commitments to safety and state of good repair.
-Support improvements that can be sustained over the long-term.
- Defending existing clean air vehicle rules and standards against any efforts to undermine the Bay Area’s efforts to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and make our communities and transportation networks resilient to a changing climate.
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