In 2012, Congress passed Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which changes the way communities must document the allocation and use of federal funds. This direction was further refined in the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).

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

MAP-21, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (P.L. 112-141), was signed into law by President Obama on July 6, 2012. Funding surface transportation programs at over $105 billion for fiscal years (FY) 2013 and 2014, MAP-21 is the first long-term highway authorization enacted since 2005.

MAP-21 is a milestone for the U.S. economy and the Nation’s surface transportation program. By transforming the policy and programmatic framework for investments to guide the system’s growth and development, MAP-21 creates a streamlined and performance-based surface transportation program and builds on many of the highway, transit, bike, and pedestrian programs and policies established in 1991.

Additional information related to MAP-21 is available on the Federal Highway Administration website at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21.

Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act 

On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. L. No. 114-94) into law—the first federal law in over a decade to provide long-term funding certainty for surface transportation infrastructure planning and investment. The FAST Act authorizes $305 billion over fiscal years 2016 through 2020 for highway, highway and motor vehicle safety, public transportation, motor carrier safety, hazardous materials safety, rail, and research, technology, and statistics programs. The FAST Act maintains our focus on safety, keeps intact the established structure of the various highway-related programs we manage, continues efforts to streamline project delivery and, for the first time, provides a dedicated source of federal dollars for freight projects. With the enactment of the FAST Act, states and local governments are now moving forward with critical transportation projects with the confidence that they will have a federal partner over the long term.

Additional information related to FAST Act is available on the Federal Highway Administration website at  https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/fastact/.