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 4520.176	August 25, 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 the FHWA Notice 4520.175? Yes, this Notice cancels the FHWA Notice 4520.175, Revised Federal-aid Highway Program Obligations Fiscal Year (FY) 2004, dated July 8, 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, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004, Part II (STEA04, Part II), P.L. 108-224, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004, Part III (STEA04, Part III), P.L. 108-263, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004, Part IV (STEA04, Part IV), P.L. 108-280, and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2005, P.L. 108-287.
   
   
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 sections 2(d) of the STEA04, the STEA04, Part II, the STEA04, Part III, and the STEA04, Part IV, limits the amount of obligation limitation that can be distributed to programs and to the States to $31,890,519,230 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 $602,134,615 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 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, as amended by section 14003 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2005, P.L. 108-287, requires that an amount of obligation authority be set aside for the surface transportation projects identified in section 115 of Division F of the statement of managers accompanying P.L. 108-199 prior to distributing any obligation authority to a State under section 110(a)(6) of Division F of P.L. 108-199. In accordance with section 2(e)(2) of the STEA03, as amended by sections 2(d) of the STEA04, the STEA04, Part II, the STEA04, Part III, and the STEA04, Part IV, an amount of obligation authority equal to 49/52nds of the funding provided for each of the section 115 projects has been set aside at this time. The availability of obligation authority for the remaining 3/52nds of funding for each section 115 projects is dependant upon the future actions of Congress in either multi-year legislation reauthorizing the Federal-aid highway program or legislation to further extend the Federal-aid Highway program beyond September 24, 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 revises 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, as limited by section 2 of the STEA03, as amended by sections 2 of the STEA04, the STEA04, Part II, the STEA04, Part III, and the STEA04, Part IV, 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 revised 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.

Table 1
Table 2

	Mary E. Peters Administrator