A federal program (Section 5316 of the Federal Transit Act) which designed to transport welfare recipients and eligible low-income individuals to and from jobs and activities related to their employment, including: transportation projects to finance planning, capital, and operating costs of providing access to jobs; promotion public transportation by low-income workers, including the use of public transportation by workers with nontraditional work schedules; promoting the use of transit vouchers for welfare recipients and eligible low-income individuals; and promoting the use of employer-provided transportation, including the transit pass benefit program under Section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

JARC also provides for reverse commute projects for public transportation designed to transport residents of urbanized areas and other than urbanized areas to suburban employment opportunities, including any projects to: subsidize the costs associated with adding reverse commute bus, train, carpool, van routes, or service from urbanized areas and other than urbanized areas to suburban workplaces; subsidize the purchase or lease by a nonprofit organization or public agency of a van or bus dedicated to shuttling employees from their residences to a suburban work place; or otherwise facilitate the provision of public transportation services to suburban employment opportunities.

Funding is based on the number of low-income individuals in a community. Under SAFETEA-LU, this is a formula program instead of a discretionary program as was the case in TEA-21. Funding is available to local governmental authorities and agencies and non-profit entities for up to three years. Funds are allocated on a formula basis with 60% to areas over 200,000 in population, 20% allocated by a competitive grant solicitation process to eligible recipients in urbanized areas between 50,000 and 200,000 in population, and 20% to rural areas. Non-DOT federal funds may be used as match. Ten percent of the funds may be used for planning, administration and technical assistance. Planning is eligible for 80% federal/20% local match; the federal contribution for operation is 50% with a 50% required local match. In order to receive JARC funding, a locally developed coordinated public transit/human service transportation plan is required, and there must be competitive selection.