U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration

MEMORANDUM

For FY 2008, Section 1101(a)(9)(D) of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU, Public Law 109-59) authorized $290,000,000 for Public Lands Highways. Under the provisions of 23 U.S.C. 202(b), the PLHD share of this is 34 percent, or $98,600,000. Under the provisions of Section 186 of Division K of the FY 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 110-161), all PLHD funds for FY 2008, that are in excess of the amounts needed to fund 98 percent of the designated amounts for the eligible projects listed in the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, are rescinded. Therefore, $21,264,182 of the $98,600,000 is rescinded, leaving an authorization for the PLHD program of $77,335,818 for FY 2008.

In addition, under the provisions of Section 120(e), Redistribution of Certain Authorized Funds, of Division K of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, any authorized funds, which are not available for obligation due to the imposition of an obligation limitation, are not available for the PLHD program, but are redistributed to the States in accordance with Section 120(e). For FY 2008, the obligation limitation is 92.4 percent. Therefore, only $71,458,296 will be available to fund these FY 2008 PLHD designated projects. Each designated amount in the Joint Explanatory Statement has to be proportionally reduced accordingly. The award amounts indicated in Attachment 1 are the reduced amounts.

At this time, we request States to submit applications for the projects designated in the Joint Explanatory Statement, which are those listed in Attachment 1. Only those States with projects listed in Attachment 1 need to respond to this solicitation. Please do not submit any applications for projects that are not listed in Attachment 1. The applications must be submitted electronically in MS Word format (see Attachment 2). Because these projects were designated for funding by Congress, the short form of the project application is being used, and requires completion of only 12 items.

Please note that Congress did not declare these designated projects eligible "notwithstanding any other provision of law," as they have done in recent years. In addition, Section 186 specifies that only the eligible designated projects shall be funded. Therefore, the projects must still meet the eligibility requirements under 23 U.S.C. 202 and 204. These eligibility requirements are explained in Attachment 3, and this issue should be addressed in Item 8 of the application.

Project applications must be received in Headquarters no later than March 31, 2008. When submitting the State's project applications, the division office shall transmit them via email to Larry Beidel (larry.beidel@dot.gov) of my staff. Your email transmittal should include:

1. a statement from the division office that the State's submittal has been reviewed by the division office and that it meets the submission requirements;
2. the State transportation department's submission email or letter to the FHWA division office; and
3. each MS Word application as an attachment.

Information on the PLHD program is included as Attachment 3 to this memorandum. This contains background information on the program including eligibility and selection criteria, as well as the submission requirements. This solicitation memorandum will also be posted on our FHWA website at www.fhwa.dot.gov/discretionary.

If there are any questions, please contact Larry Beidel (202-366-4653) of my staff.

Attachments

• Earmarking in FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act
• FY 2008 Project Application
• Program Information

cc:

HIPA-1 (Horne) HIPA-10 (Beidel) HIPA-10 (Barone)
HFPD-6 (Reif) HIF-1 (Gee)
Financial Managers
Resource Centers
FLH Divisions