Assistance program
New Freedom Program
-$14.3 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Federal Transit Administration, Transportation, Department of
- Assistance
- Formula Grants
- CFDA number
- 20.521
- What it does
- The New Freedom program (Section 5317) provided grants for new capital and operating projects aimed at reducing, beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, transportation barriers faced by individuals with disabilities to expand mobility through transportation, including transportation to and from jobs and employment support services. The New Freedom Program was repealed under MAP-21; however, New Freedom type projects are eligible for funding under the new Section 5310 Program (Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities Program – Circular FTA C 9070.1G).
- Who benefits
- Individuals with Disabilities.
- Who applies
- The chief executive officer of each State or an official designee must designate a public entity to be the recipient for New Freedom funds. In urbanized areas with populations less than 200,000 and in non-urbanized areas, the State is the designated recipient. For these areas, the chief executive officer of a State designates a State agency responsible for administering the New Freedom Program, and officially notifies the appropriate Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regional office in writing of that designation. The chief executive officer of a State may designate the State agency that receives Other Than Urbanized Area (Non-urbanized Area, Section 5311) and/or the Elderly Individuals and Individuals with Disabilities (Section 5310) Program funds to be the New Freedom recipient, or the chief executive officer of a State may designate a different agency. In urbanized areas over 200,000 in population, the recipient charged with administering the New Freedom Program must be officially designated through a process consistent with 49 U.S.C. 5307(a)(2): an entity designated in accordance with the planning process under Sections 5303, 5304, and 5306, by the chief executive officer of a State, responsible local officials, and publicly owned operators of public transportation, to receive and apportion amounts under Section 5336 that are attributable to transportation management areas identified under Section 5303.
- Authorized by
- Program was repealed under MAP-21 and Safe, Accountable, Efficient, Flexible Transportation Equity Act: A legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments