The Department of Transportation (DOT) continues to implement the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998 (TIFIA), under which the DOT may provide secured (direct) loans, lines of credit, and loan guarantees to public and private sponsors of eligible surface transportation projects. The DOT published original implementing regulations for the TIFIA on June 2, 1999.

With this rule, the DOT revises certain of these prior regulations, as codified within 49 CFR Part 80, as follows: clarifies that funds will be disbursed based on the project’s anticipated financing needs; clarifies that the borrower must obtain ongoing credit surveillance for the life of the TIFIA credit instrument; assigns specific weights to each of the eight statutory selection criteria; specifies that loan servicing fees are to be paid by the borrower; modifies the time period for audited financial statements from 120 days to within no more than 180 days; and provides that administrative offsets will be employed only in cases of fraud, misrepresentation, or criminal acts, and will not be employed as a result of revenue shortfalls.

(PDF - Published: July 19, 2000)