23 U.S.C. § 203 — Federal lands transportation program

(a) Use of funds — (1) In general: Money from the Federal Lands Transportation Program must be used by the Secretary of Transportation and the relevant federal land agency's Secretary to pay for: (A) planning, research, maintenance, engineering, and construction of federal-lands transportation facilities — including parking, scenic easement and historic-site purchases, paths for walkers and cyclists, environmental protections near federal land (to improve safety, protect wildlife, and fund culverts and bridges), rest areas with restrooms and water, easing traffic congestion, and other road facilities the Secretary decides on; (B) building, running, and maintaining transit facilities; (C) any eligible transportation project on a public road in, next to, or leading to federal land open to the public; and (D) up to $20,000,000 per year for the wildlife-safety work described in (A)(iv)(I). (2) Contracts: For these activities, the Secretary and the relevant federal land agency may contract with a state (or its subdivision) or an Indian tribe. (3) Administration: All money for building and improving these facilities must follow rules and agreements jointly approved by both Secretaries. (4)(A) Cooperation: States, counties, or local governments can help fund or assist construction. (B) Any money they contribute goes toward the category of facility it was given for. (5)(A) Competitive bidding: Construction contracts must generally go through competitive bidding. (B) Exception: This doesn't apply if the Secretary finds that a different method better serves the public interest. (6) Native plants: Whoever carries out this work must, as much as practical, consider using locally native plants and designs that limit runoff and heat. (b) Agency program distributions — (1) Starting October 1, 2011, and every October 1 after that, the Secretary allocates the year's funding based on need — decided in consultation with the relevant federal land agencies, and coordinated with their transportation plans, covering the National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal land agencies. (2)(A) Each federal land agency's funding application must propose programs at different possible funding levels, defined after discussion with the Secretary. (B) In reviewing an application, the Secretary considers how well the programs support goals like keeping facilities in good repair, fixing bridges, improving safety, serving high-use recreation or economic sites, and the agency's own resource-management goals. (C) Applications may propose programs that run over several years for long-term planning. (c) National inventory — (1) The federal land agencies, working with the Secretary, must keep a full national list of public federal-lands transportation facilities. (2) That list must include, at minimum, facilities that: (A) provide access to high-use recreation or economic sites; and (B) are owned by the National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Corps of Engineers, or Bureau of Reclamation. (3) The list must be shared with the Secretary. (4) The land agencies must update their own lists, on a schedule the Secretary sets after discussion with them. (5) Adding or removing a facility from the list doesn't count as a "Federal action" requiring review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). (d) Bicycle safety — On any federally owned road with a speed limit of 30 mph or more that has a paved bike path within 100 yards, the relevant agency must ban bicycles from the road — unless the agency decides the road's "bicycle level of service" rating is B or better. (e) Efficient NEPA implementation — (1) Definitions: An "environmental document" is any environmental impact statement, assessment, categorical exclusion, or similar document required by NEPA. A "project" is a highway, transit, or multimodal project funded under this title and authorized by this section or section 204. The "project sponsor" is the federal land agency seeking or getting the funds. (2) The Federal Highway Administration may prepare the environmental document itself, following its own procedures, if the project sponsor asks and the document can cover everything the sponsor needs. (3)(A) When the Highway Administration prepares that document, it should, as much as practical, cover everything the land agency needs too. (B) The land agency doesn't have to separately double-check that document's adequacy. (C) The land agency can reuse a Highway Administration environmental document for the same or a substantially similar project, the same way it could reuse a document from any other federal agency. (4) A project sponsor may use categorical exclusions (a type of streamlined environmental review) that the Highway Administration has already set up, as long as: (A) the sponsor and Highway Administration agree the exclusion fits the project; (B) the project meets NEPA's conditions for that exclusion; and (C) using it doesn't conflict with the sponsor's own rules — except that the sponsor's list of its own exclusions doesn't count as a conflict. (5) The Secretary must help the land agency follow through on any design and mitigation commitments made jointly with the project sponsor in an environmental document prepared under this subsection.