Last week, U.S. Congress approved the transportation reauthorization bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), by a vote of 373-52 in the House of Representatives and 74-19 in the Senate. The President is expected to sign the bill sometime this week. Below is a summary of the key environmental provisions in the legislation.
MAP-21 provides funding certainty through fiscal year (FY) 2014 (Sept. 30, 2014). The bill also retains current funding levels, plus inflation. T he obligation limit for the federal-aid highway program is $39.7 in FY 2013 and $40.25 billion in FY 2014. Federal transit programs are provided $10.6 billion in FY2013 and $10.7 billion in FY 2014.
MAP-21 eliminates the equity bonus program and, instead, distributes highway formula funds to states based on each state’s share of total highway funds distributed in FY 2012. Every state is guaranteed a minimum return of 95 percent of its payments into the highway trust fund.
Although the vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, all 52 House members and 19 Senators who opposed the bill were Republican (see the list here). Below is a summary of the key environmental provisions in the legislation.
Summary of Environmental Provisions that Impact Highway and Transportation Construction Industry
Environmental Streamlining
- Contains significant reforms in the environmental review and planning process designed to reduce project delivery time and costs, including:
- Expands the number and types of projects that can be excluded from the federal environmental review process.
- Encourages early coordination between relevant agencies to avoid delays later in the review process and directs DOT to develop specific review deadlines.
- Designates U.S. DOT as the lead agency for the review and approval of transportation projects. DOT to encourage deadlines for actions by other federal agencies.
- Allows for programmatic decisions instead of project by project decisions.
- Limits federal National Environmental Policy Act review requirements for projects that are less than $5 million or where federal funds are less than 15 percent of the project costing more than $30 million.
- Expands the category of projects that are automatically excluded from the federal environmental review process, including emergency projects, many maintenance projects and reconstruction projects.
- Provides expedited procedures for approval of projects with minimal environmental impact.
- Allows for the purchase of right-of-way and for design to begin prior to final environmental clearance.
- For states with PM 2.5 non-attainment areas, requires that 25 percent of state’s Construction Mitigation & Air Quality Improvement funds be used for projects in those areas that reduce PM. Projects can include diesel retrofit programs for on- and off-road diesel equipment operating on a highway construction project in the non-attainment area. (See related article in this issue of the Observer on EPA’s proposal to strengthen and add new national standards for fine particulates.)
- The House provision amending the Solid Waste Disposal Act to classify fly ash as a nonhazardous waste was not included in the conference report.