23 U.S.C. § 204 — Federal lands access program

(a) Use of Funds (1) The Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of the relevant federal land agency must use Federal Lands Access Program money to pay for: (A) Planning, research, engineering, maintenance, rehabilitation, restoration, and construction of transportation facilities on, next to, or leading to federal land — including: parking areas and their interpretive signs; buying scenic easements and scenic or historic sites; sidewalks and bike paths; environmental work near federal land to improve safety and cut down on vehicles hitting wildlife, while keeping habitat connected; building or rebuilding rest areas, including bathrooms and water systems; wayfinding signs that fit the area; landscaping; cleaning up or removing visual clutter cooperatively; and any other public road facility the Secretary decides is appropriate. (B) Operating and maintaining transit facilities. (C) Any transportation project eligible under this title that is on, next to, or leads to federal land. (2) For these projects, the Secretary and the relevant federal land agency's Secretary can sign a contract or agreement with a state (or a part of a state) or an Indian tribe. (3) All money spent building and improving these facilities must follow regulations and agreements the Secretary approves. (4) States, counties, or other local governments can cooperate on projects, but they aren't required to. Any money they contribute gets credited back into the program's available funds. (5) Construction contracts must normally go through competitive bidding — unless the Secretary (or the land agency's Secretary) finds that a different method serves the public interest better. (6) When carrying out these activities, the Secretary must make sure the entity doing the work considers, as much as practical, using native plants adapted to the local area, and designs that cut down on runoff and heat. (b) Program Distributions (1) Money for the program is split among states that have federal land, using this formula: (A) States with at least 1.5% of all the federally managed public land in the country get 80% of the funding, split this way: 30% based on how much recreational visiting each state gets compared to all these states combined; 5% based on how much federal land area each state has compared to all these states combined; 55% based on how many miles of federal public roads each state has compared to all these states combined; and 10% based on how many federal public bridges each state has compared to all these states combined. (B) States with less than 1.5% of that federal land get the remaining 20% of the funding, split using the exact same four ratios — visits, land area, road miles, and bridges — but compared just among that smaller group of states. (2) The data used for this formula comes from five federal agencies: the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Army Corps of Engineers. (c) Programming Decisions Committee (1) Each state has a committee that decides which projects get funded. It includes a representative from the Federal Highway Administration, a representative from the state's Department of Transportation, and a representative from a relevant local government in the state. (2) Before making any joint decision or final funding choice, this committee must consult with every relevant federal agency in the state. (3) When choosing projects, the committee must favor ones that serve, are next to, or are inside high-use federal recreation sites or federal economic centers, as identified by the Secretaries of the relevant federal land agencies.