U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000


Skip to content
Facebook iconYouTube iconTwitter iconFlickr iconLinkedInInstagram

MAP-21 - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century

Home / MAP-21 / Fact Sheets / Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ)

This MAP-21 fact sheet has been superseded by a FAST Act fact sheet.

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ)

Year 2013 2014
Estimated funding $ 2.21 B * $ 2.23 B *

* Calculated (sum of estimated individual State CMAQ apportionments)

Program purpose

The CMAQ program is continued in MAP-21 to provide a flexible funding source to State and local governments for transportation projects and programs to help meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act. Funding is available to reduce congestion and improve air quality for areas that do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, or particulate matter (nonattainment areas) and for former nonattainment areas that are now in compliance (maintenance areas).

Statutory citation(s): MAP-21 §1113; 23 USC 149

Funding features

Funded by contract authority from the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund. Funds are subject to the overall Federal-aid obligation limitation.

MAP-21 has a new approach to core formula program funding, authorizing a lump sum total instead of individual authorizations for each program. Once each State's combined total apportionment is calculated, an amount is set aside for the State's CMAQ program via a calculation based on the relative size of the State's FY 2009 CMAQ apportionment. (See "Apportionment" fact sheet for a description of this calculation)

Set-asides

From the State's CMAQ apportionment, the following sums are to be set aside:

Federal share: In accordance with 23USC120.

Eligible activities

Funds may be used for transportation projects likely to contribute to the attainment or maintenance of a national ambient air quality standard, with a high level of effectiveness in reducing air pollution, and be included in the Metropolitan Planning Organization's (MPO's) current transportation plan and transportation improvement program (TIP) or the current state transportation improvement program (STIP) in areas without an MPO.

Some specific eligible activities are described below:

Workforce development, training, and education activities are also an eligible use of CMAQ funds.

[§1109; 23 USC 504(e)]

Program features

Some existing provisions are explicitly highlighted:

State flexibility

Evaluation of projects

Optional programmatic eligibility

At the discretion of an MPO, a technical assessment of a selected program of projects may be conducted through modeling or other means. If the required emissions reduction is demonstrated, no further demonstration is needed for individual projects included.

PM 2.5 areas

MAP-21 calls for a State with PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) nonattainment or maintenance areas to give priority to using funds for projects proven to reduce PM 2.5 emissions in such areas; eligible projects to mitigate PM 2.5 include diesel retrofits.

CMAQ outcomes assessment study

Performance

The CMAQ program has new performance-based features.

Page last modified on September 12, 2013
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000