; and (3) just over half of car users report wishing they had more options; Whereas Americans pay a premium for housing in communities accessible to public transit, a phenomenon the National Association of Realtors called the public transit effect ; Whereas Americans should not have to pay a premium to be near public transit, but have no choice due to persistent under funding and disinvestment in public transit, resulting in few communities that are well served by such transit; Whereas, according to a 2016 study, 13 of some of the Nation’s largest cities (comprising 12,200,000 people) offer infrequent and unreliable service; Whereas the Federal Transit Administration has found the public transit maintenance backlog to be $98,000,000,000, an amount which the Department of Transportation estimates would require transit agencies to increase spending by $7,000,000,000 per year to eliminate the backlog over a 20-year period; Whereas Federal transportation programs were developed in the 1950s to build out the interstate highway system, a purpose which remains the primary goal of the Federal transportation program; Whereas the gas tax, often referred to as a user fee on drivers, is the primary source of revenue for the Highway Trust Fund which includes the Mass Transit Account because public transit directly benefits drivers by removing cars from the road; Whereas, since 1982, approximately 80 percent of Federal transportation program funding has been allocated to highways and only 20 percent to public transit (Federal 80–20 split ); Whereas the Federal 80–20 split incentivizes investments in highways rather than public transit due to the disproportionate availability of funds, States and local communities are stripped of viable options in terms of the types of infrastructure they can build; Whereas the Federal 80–20 split provides inadequate funding for public transit, contributing to the backlog of deferred maintenance and infrequent or unreliable service