23 U.S.C. § 202 — Tribal transportation program

(a) Use of Funds. Tribal transportation program money must be used by the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of the Interior to pay for: planning, research, maintenance, engineering, and building tribal transportation facilities; nearby parking areas; interpretive signs; buying scenic easements and scenic or historic sites; features for walkers and bicycles; environmental fixes near tribal land to improve safety, cut down on animal-vehicle crashes, and protect habitat connections, including culverts and bridges; building or rebuilding roadside rest areas with bathrooms and water; and other public road facilities the Secretary decides are appropriate. The money can also pay to run and maintain transit programs and facilities located on or leading to tribal land, or run by a tribal government, and any transportation project that is on, leads to, or is tied to tribal land or a tribal government. For these activities, the two Secretaries may sign contracts or agreements with a state (including its political subdivisions) or an Indian tribe. Indian workers can be hired to do this construction or other work, following rules the Secretary of the Interior sets. There is no cap on how many federal employees can work on building or improving tribal transportation facilities. All money for building and improving tribal transportation facilities must be managed under rules and agreements both Secretaries approve together. No more than 5 percent of tribal transportation program money can go to program management, oversight, and project-related administrative costs. The Secretary of the Interior can set aside some Bureau of Indian Affairs administrative money tied to this program to fund tribal technical assistance centers. On maintenance: of the money given to a tribe from this program, the Secretary can spend on maintenance (not counting road sealing, which has no limit) no more than the larger of 25 percent or $500,000. The Bureau of Indian Affairs keeps the main job — including requesting yearly funding — for its own road maintenance programs on reservations, and the Secretary of the Interior must make sure this program's maintenance money adds to, not replaces, the Bureau's road maintenance funding. A tribe and a state can sign a road maintenance agreement where the tribe takes over the state's job of maintaining tribal transportation facilities and the roads leading to them; these agreements are negotiated directly between the state and tribe and don't need the Secretary's approval. States, counties, or other local governments can help pay for construction and improvements; any money they give is credited to this program's funds. Construction contracts must normally be awarded through competitive bidding, unless the Secretary or the Secretary of the Interior decides a different method serves the public interest better; certain other laws about Indian labor and self-determination still apply to money the Secretary of the Interior manages for building and improving tribal facilities. (b) Funds Distribution. The Secretary of the Interior, working with the Secretary, must keep a national inventory of tribal transportation facilities that qualify for this program. The inventory must include, at minimum, facilities a tribe has asked to include that were on the Bureau of Indian Affairs' list before October 1, 2004; are owned by a tribal government or the Bureau; were built using Highway Trust Fund money since 1983; are public roads or bridges inside a reservation, Alaska Native village, or similar community where most residents are American Indian or Alaska Native; are public roads on or leading to a reservation or Indian trust land; or are key access routes tribes propose, like roads to landfills, drinking water sources, or transportation hubs — a proposed key access route must be the shortest reasonable path between two points. The Secretary can add other qualifying facilities to the inventory too, as long as this is done the same way nationwide, and all bridges in the inventory must also be recorded in the national bridge inventory under section 144. Despite certain rulemaking laws in title 5, the Secretary of the Interior keeps the power to write regulations for this program. On the funding formula: after setting aside money for the tribal supplemental program and other listed uses, the Secretary divides the rest among tribes each October 1. For fiscal years 2013 through 2015, a shrinking share (80%, then 60%, then 40%) of each tribe's 2011 funding amount is preserved, with the rest split using the tribal-shares formula below; from fiscal year 2016 on, only 20% of the 2011 amount is preserved this way, and a separate "High Priority Projects" program from an older rule no longer applies. Tribal shares are figured using the 2012 inventory and recent population data, as follows: 27 percent is split based on each tribe's share of total eligible road mileage; 39 percent is split based on each tribe's share of total population; and 34 percent is split evenly among each Bureau of Indian Affairs region, then divided within each region based on each tribe's average relative-need and population numbers from 2005 through 2011. On tribal supplemental funding: each year, the Secretary sets aside part of the program's money for extra help to tribes — 30 percent if the program has $275 million or less, or $82.5 million plus 12.5 percent of anything above $275 million if it's more. This money is first split among Bureau of Indian Affairs regions based on their tribal shares. Within each region, it goes to tribes that would otherwise get less funding than they got in 2011, up to making up the shortfall — but a tribe can never get more this way than its 2011 amount. If a region has leftover supplemental money after this, that money is spread among all tribes in the region based on how much they already received. Money the Secretary of the Interior gets under this part must reach eligible tribes within 30 days, following the program's distribution formula, and can only be spent on projects in a Secretary-approved transportation improvement program. A tribal government can approve its own plans and start road or bridge construction with this program's money through a self-determination contract, as long as it promises the work will meet health and safety standards, gets a state-licensed civil engineer to review the plans and confirm they meet those standards, and gives that certification to the right federal office. On contracts and agreements with tribes: when money under this chapter or related law is meant to pay for planning, research, engineering, or building a tribal transportation facility, the tribal government can ask to get that money directly, to handle those jobs itself, following the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act — this includes contract support costs, no matter which level of government previously handled the work. Two or more tribes can team up as one group for this purpose. The Secretary can sign funding agreements directly with a tribe. A tribe that takes over a project gets the same amount of money it would have gotten anyway, plus the amount that would have been withheld for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' own administrative costs. To qualify, the tribe must show financial stability and good financial management over the past three years; having no major uncorrected audit problems during that time is enough proof. A tribe that takes over a project also takes on all the duties the Secretary of the Interior would have had — and gets all the powers the Secretary of the Interior would have had — except for duties or powers that legally cannot be handed over under the Self-Determination Act. If the Secretary and a tribe disagree about whether something can be transferred, the tribe can use the dispute-resolution and appeal steps in that Act. If a tribe ends its contract or agreement, the Secretary must give the leftover money to the Secretary of the Interior to keep providing transportation services. (c) Planning. Each year, no more than 2 percent of this program's money can go to tribal governments that apply for transportation planning help, under the Self-Determination Act. A tribal government must run its planning process working with the Secretary of the Interior and, if it makes sense, with a state, local government, or metro planning group, following section 201(c). A project funded this way must be chosen by the tribal government from its transportation improvement program, and approved by both the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary. (d) Tribal Transportation Facility Bridges. The Secretary must run a nationwide priority program to fix eligible tribal bridges that are in poor shape, can't hold much weight, or need shape improvements. This money can pay for planning, design, engineering, building, or inspecting new or replacement bridges; for replacing, fixing, repainting, or treating bridges with less corrosive de-icing materials; or for fixing any bridge problem, including multi-pipe culverts. To qualify, a bridge must have an opening of at least 20 feet, be classified as a tribal transportation facility, and be in poor shape, unable to hold much weight, or need shape improvements. The Secretary can release this money for engineering, building, and building-related inspection once the right paperwork is approved and eligibility is confirmed. (e) Safety. Before handing out money under subsection (b), the Secretary must set aside no more than 4 percent of the program's yearly money for safety projects, going to projects tribes apply for after the Secretary studies safety problems and chances for improvement on tribal land. A tribal government picks its safety projects from its transportation improvement program, working with the Secretary of the Interior and, where useful, a state, local government, or metro planning group — and the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior must approve the choice. (f) Federal-aid Eligible Projects. Before approving a tribal transportation facility project that could also get regular federal-aid highway money under section 104, the Secretary must confirm that the money for this project adds to — and does not replace — the state's fair share of section 104 money.