This directive was canceled May 14, 2004.

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration	Notice Subject
	REVISED FEDERAL-AID HIGHWAY PROGRAM OBLIGATIONS FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2004
	Classification Code	Date	Office of Primary Interest
	N 4520.173	March 19, 2004	HABF-10

1. What is the purpose of this Notice? This Notice is to advise of the revised distribution among the States of the limitation on Federal-aid highway program obligations. This distribution is subject to revision upon the enactment of a law reauthorizing the Federal-aid highway program.
   
   
2. Does the Notice cancel FHWA Notice 4520.172? Yes, this Notice cancels FHWA Notice 4520.172, Federal-aid Highway Program Obligations Fiscal Year (FY) 2004, dated February 20, 2004. The revisions to the obligation limitation are required pursuant to the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004 (STEA04), Public Law (P.L.) 108-202.
   
   
3. What are the legislative provisions?
   
   
   1. Division F of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199, the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004, provides an obligation limitation for the Federal-aid highway program for FY 2004 of $33,843,000,000.
      
      
   2. Division H, section 168, of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199, contains a .59 percent across-the-board rescission of obligation limitation imposed for FY 2004. The rescission reduces the Federal-aid highway program obligation limitation by $199,673,700, to $33,643,326,300.
      
      
   3. Division F, section 517, of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199, the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004 contains a Working Capital Fund reduction which further reduces the Federal-aid highway program obligation limitation by $2,578,203 to $33,640,748,097.
      
      
   4. Section 2(e)(2) of the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2003, (STEA03), P.L. 108-88, as amended by section 2(d) of the STEA04, limits the amount of obligation limitation that can be distributed to programs and to the States to $19,741,750,000 until the enactment of a law reauthorizing the Federal-aid highway program.
      
      
   5. This limitation shall not apply to obligations for projects covered 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;
         
         
      7. section 157 of title 23, U.S.C., as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century; and
         
         
      8. section 105 of title 23, U.S.C., only in an amount equal to $372,750,000 in FY 2004.
         
         
4. What are the Allocated Accounts?
   
   
   1. Amounts authorized for administrative expenses, programs funded from the administrative takedown, and the programs, projects, and activities for which funds are made available under the heading "Federal-aid Highways, Miscellaneous Highway and Highway Safety Programs" in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199, 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. Obligations of funds authorized for Transportation Research are subject to the limitation on obligations. Amounts remaining available for obligation that were authorized for such programs in FY 2003 shall be in addition to the overall obligation limitation for FY 2004.
      
      
   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.
   
   
5. What is the Distribution of Obligation Limitation to the States?
   
   
   1. Table 1 shows the amount of revised formula the obligation limitation distributed to each State for FY 2004. Each State receives a proportional amount of the obligation limitation available to be distributed to the States based on the ratio that State's total apportionments, subject to the limitation on obligation, bears to the total of such apportionments for all States.
      
      
   2. Division F, section 110(g), of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199, the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004 requires that an amount of obligation authority must be set aside within each State's full-year formula obligation limitation equal to the amount for each surface transportation project identified for that State in section 115 of the statement of managers accompanying that Act. In accordance with section 2(e)(2) of STEA03, as amended by section 2(d) of STEA04, an amount equal to 7/12ths of the funding provided for the section 115 projects has been set aside from the State's formula obligation limitation at this time. States are hereby advised that the full amount of obligation limitation required by section 115 to be set aside by a State for projects identified in section 115 must be so set aside from the full-year amount of obligation limitation that is made available to the State for FY 2004. The limitation associated with the section 115 projects shall remain available until used for the obligation of funds for which distributed and shall be in addition to any amounts of any limitation imposed for future fiscal years.
      
      
   3. After August 1, 2004, the Secretary will revise the distribution of limitation made available if a State does not plan to obligate the amount distributed during FY 2004 and redistribute such amount to those States able to obligate amounts in addition to those previously distributed during FY 2004.
   
   
6. What are the Special Limitations?
   
   
   1. Division F, section 110(a)(4), of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, P.L. 108-199, the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Act, 2004, is limited by section 2 of the STEA03, as amended by section 2 of the STEA04, provides for an obligation limitation within the overall obligation ceiling for the funds authorized under the following:
      
      
      1. section 201 of the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, and
         
         
      2. section 105 of title 23, U.S.C. (relating to Minimum Guarantee).
      
      
   2. The 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 revised State-by-State distribution of the special limitation associated with Minimum Guarantee and the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 for FY 2004 is also shown on the attached table.
   
   
7. Are there any transfer or withholding provisions? Yes, limitation will be transferred to the States' 402 Safety Program for those States that 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 for Driving While Intoxicated or Driving Under the Influence law for FY 2004. Limitation will be withheld from those States that failed to meet the provisions of title 23, U.S.C., section 163, the Operation of Motor Vehicles by Intoxicated Persons law. 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