This is the text of the bill H.R. 11816 of the 85th Congress, introduced in the House of Representatives on April 1, 1958 by Rep. William Green, Jr. (D-PA). This may have been the first bill for federal financial assistance for mass transit. It would have created a Mass Transit Financing Corporation within the Commerce Department, authorized the corporation issue up to $500 million in capital stock and use the proceeds:
to purchase the securities and obligations of, or to make loans (1) to public and private transit companies, and railroads providing commuter service, in standard metropolitan areas as defined by the Federal Committee on Standard Metropolitan Areas, to finance the purchase of new equipment, other than buses, for the purpose of improving transit or commuter service or extending such service to new areas within any such standard metropolitan area, and (2) to municipalities to finance the purchase of such equipment for the purpose of making such equipment available by lease or otherwise to any such transit company or railroad.