1. What is the purpose of this Notice? This notice is to advise of the limitation on Federal-aid Highway program obligations for FY 2003 and the distribution among the States.
   
   
2. What are the legislative provisions?
   
   
   1. The Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, P.L. 108-7, which includes the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2003, and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century (TEA-21), as amended, provide the limitation on obligations.
      
      
   2. Division N, section 601, of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, P.L. 108-7, contains a .65 percent across-the-board rescission of obligation limitation imposed for FY 2003. The rescission for the Federal-aid Highway program is $206,700,000 from the Federal-aid obligation limitation. Total obligations for Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs shall not exceed $31,593,300,000 for FY 2003.
      
      
   3. The limitation under subsection (b) shall not apply to obligations under:
      
      (1) Section 125 of title 23, United States Code (U.S.C.);
      
      (2) Section 147 of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1978;
      
      (3) Section 9 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1981;
      
      (4) Sections 131(b) and 131(j) of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982.
      
      (5) Sections 149(b) and 149(c) of the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987;
      
      (6) Sections 1103 through 1108 of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA);
      
      (7) Section 157 of title 23, U.S.C., as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of TEA-21; and
      
      (8) Section 105 of title 23, U.S.C., only in an amount equal to $639,000,000 per fiscal year.
      
      
3. What are the Allocated Accounts?
   
   
   1. Amounts authorized for administrative expenses and programs funded from the administrative takedown authorized by section 104(a) of title 23, U.S.C., pursuant to Division I, section 317 of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolutions, 2003, P. L. 108-7, which includes the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2003, as well as the amounts authorized for the highway use tax evasion program and for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, are subject to the limitation on obligations.
      
      
   2. Unobligated balances of funds from the previous fiscal year that are allocated by the Secretary are subject to the limitation on obligations but are excluded from the State-by-State distribution.
      
      
   3. Pursuant to Division N, section 601 of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolutions, 2003, P. L. 108-7, which includes the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2003, within the overall obligation limitation of $31,593,300,000, the obligation of funds authorized for Intelligent Transportation Systems for FY 2003 shall not exceed $230,492,000, and the obligation of funds authorized for Transportation Research programs for FY 2003 shall not exceed $198,203,250. Amounts remaining available for obligation that were authorized for such programs in FY 2002 shall be in addition to the overall obligation limitation for FY 2003.
      
      
   4. Amounts that are allocated will be covered by an equal amount of obligation limitation, which will be distributed with the allocation of the funds.
      
      
4. What is the Redistribution of Certain Authorized Funds?
   
   
   1. Pursuant to section 1102(f) of TEA-21 and section 310(e) of the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2003, the Secretary shall distribute to the States any funds authorized to be appropriated for such fiscal year for Federal-aid Highway programs that the Secretary determines will not be allocated to the States, and will not be available for obligation, due to the imposition of any obligation limitation for FY 2003.
      
      
   2. Such distribution to the States shall be accomplished within 30 days of the date of this Notice. The funds so distributed shall be available for any purpose described in section 133(b) of title 23, U.S.C.
      
      
   3. Headquarters' program offices will be notified by the Office of Budget and Finance of the reduction in contract authority for programs they administer due to the imposition of the obligation limitation for FY 2003.
      
      
5. What is the Distribution of Obligation Limitation to the States?
   
   
   1. Table 1 shows the amount of formula obligation limitation distributed to each State for FY 2003. Each State receives a proportional amount of obligation limitation available to be distributed to the States based on the ratio that State's total apportionments, subject to the limitation on obligations, bears to the total of such apportionments for all States.
   
   
   
   2. After August 1, 2003, the Secretary will revise the distribution of limitation made available if a State does not plan to obligate the amount distributed during FY 2003 and redistribute such amount to those States able to obligate amounts in addition to those previously distributed during FY 2003. The redistribution will give priority to those States having large unobligated balances of funds apportioned under title 23, U.S.C., sections 104 and 144; section 160 of title 23 (as in effect on the day before enactment of TEA-21); and section 1015 of ISTEA.
   
   
6. What are the Special Limitations?
   
   
   1. Section 1102(c)(4) of TEA-21, pursuant to Division N, section 601 of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, and section 310(a)(4) of the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2003, provide for an obligation limitation within the overall obligation ceiling of $31,593,300,000 for the funds authorized under the following:
      
      (1) Section 117 of title 23, U.S.C., (relating to High Priority Projects program);
      
      (2) Section 201 of the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965;
      
      (3) the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge Authority Act of 1995;
      
      (4) $1,987,000,000 for section 105 of title 23, U.S.C., (relating to Minimum Guarantee).
      
      
   2. This special limitation associated with the programs listed above shall remain available until used for the obligation of funds for which distributed and shall be in addition to any amount of any limitation imposed for future fiscal years.
      
      
   3. The State-by-State distribution of the special limitation associated with minimum guarantee and the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 for FY 2003 is also shown on the Table 1. The special limitation associated with High Priority Projects, and the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge Authority Act of 1995, will be distributed when the funds are allocated to the States.
      
      
7. Are there any transfer provisions? Yes, limitation will be transferred to the States' 402 Safety Program for those States which failed to meet the provisions of title 23, U.S.C., section 154, the Open Container Requirements law; and title 23, U.S.C., section 164, the Minimum Penalties for Repeat Offenders law for FY 2003. The amounts of the transfers and associated obligation limitation are shown on Table 2.



8. What action is required? Division Administrators should ensure that copies of this Notice are provided to State departments of transportation.

Mary E. Peters Administrator

Attachments:

Table 1
Table 2