Contacts

For more information, please contact Christopher Douwes.

From:
// Original signed by //
Brian R. Bezio
Acting Chief Financial Officer

To:
Associate Administrator for Planning, Environment, and Realty
Associate Administrator for Policy
Chief Counsel
Division Administrators

Date: September 3, 2015

Reply to: HCFB-10
(HCF-2015-011)

The purpose of this memorandum is to notify the States via the Division Offices of each State's Flexible Excess TAP funds authority for the period beginning on August 1, 2015, and ending on July 31, 2016. In addition, this memo outlines the steps necessary to utilize the flexibility.

Section 213(d) of title 23, United States Code (U.S.C.), provides authority for States to elect to use excess TAP funds for any activity for which the Secretary has approved the obligation of funds for any State under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program (23 U.S.C. 149). Additional information on project eligibilities under the Flexible Excess TAP funds authority, the continuation of TAP requirements, and the determination by States (in coordination with the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)) on whether to use Flexible Excess TAP fund authority and subsequently, what projects to select, can be found in the TAP Q&As posted under FHWA's MAP-21 Q&As (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/qandas/).

Pursuant to section 213(d) of title 23, U.S.C., on August 1st of each fiscal year, each State's Flexible Excess TAP funds authority is calculated as that State's unobligated balance of available TAP funds minus the amount reserved for that State for TAP for that fiscal year. The attached table reflects each State's current Flexible Excess TAP funds authority for the period beginning on August 1, 2015, and ending on July 31, 2016.

If a State decides to use the flexibility to obligate TAP funds on a CMAQ-eligible project(s) and that project(s) is ready to be obligated, the following steps must be taken to utilize the identified flexibility:

1. The State must submit a completed Transfer Request Form 1576 to the Division Office to transfer the amount from the TAP FMIS program codes to the associated Flexible Excess TAP FMIS program codes (see program code pair table below).
2. Once received, the Division Office should review the transfer request and verify that (1) the CMAQ-eligible project(s) is ready for obligation, and (2) the amount being requested plus the amount of other transfers to the Flexible Excess TAP program codes during the current August to July time period does not exceed the State's Flexible Excess TAP funds authority for the current August to July time period.
3. Then, the Division Office should sign and submit the transfer request to the official FHWA transfer mailbox (FHWA_Transfers@dot.gov).
4. Once the transfer is complete, the Budget Office will notify the Division Office; the Division Office will notify the State, and the State may then obligate the funds on the CMAQ-eligible project(s).

If the State is unable to obligate the transferred funds on the identified CMAQ-eligible project(s), the State should submit a request to transfer the associated funds back to the main TAP program codes from which they originated.

Each State's Flexible Excess TAP funds authority is calculated as an overall State flexibility and this flexibility may be exercised in any proportions among the TAP funding categories. However, the flexibility may only be used by transferring between the program code pairs as shown in the table below.

Division Administrators should ensure that copies of this memorandum are provided to the State departments of transportation.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Brust at 202-366-3017 or Valentina Raptis at 202-366-3906.

Attachment

Federal Highway Administration
Office of the Chief Financial Officer

August 1, 2015, through July 31, 2016,
Flexible Excess TAP Funds Authority
Pursuant to Section 213(d) of Title 23, U.S.C.