23 U.S.C. § 322 — Magnetic levitation transportation technology deployment program

(a) Definitions. This section defines four terms. "Eligible project^* costs" means the capital cost of a MAGLEV project's fixed guideway infrastructure — the land, piers, guideways, the propulsion equipment and other parts attached to the guideways, power stations, control and communication facilities, access roads, and storage, repair, and maintenance^* buildings — plus the cost of planning work done before construction^*. It does not include the cost of building a new station. "Full project costs" means the total capital cost of a MAGLEV project, including both the eligible project costs and the cost of stations, vehicles, and equipment. "MAGLEV" means a transportation system using magnetic levitation that can safely carry the public at speeds over 240 miles per hour. "Partnership potential" has the meaning given in a 1991 federal feasibility study on high-speed ground transportation.

(b) Financial Assistance. The Secretary^* of Transportation must give financial assistance to pay the federal government's share of the full costs of MAGLEV projects chosen under this section. That share cannot be more than two-thirds of the full project costs, and it can only be spent on the "eligible project costs" defined above.

(c) Solicitation of Applications for Assistance. Within 180 days of this subsection becoming law, the Secretary had to ask states — or authorities one or more states designate — to apply for financial assistance to plan, design, and build eligible MAGLEV projects.

(d) Project Eligibility. To qualify for financial assistance, a project must: cover part of a high-speed ground transportation corridor with "partnership potential"; not need more federal money than the amounts set aside under subsection (h)(1) and (h)(3); result in an actual transportation facility that earns revenue by carrying passengers; be a public-private partnership, with private or other non-federal money covering at least one-third of the full project cost; meet the usual statewide and regional transportation planning rules; be approved by the Secretary based on an application from a state^* or state-designated authority; if it uses MAGLEV technology from outside the U.S., be carried out as a technology-transfer project; and use materials that are at least 70 percent made in the United States.

(e) Project Selection Criteria. Before asking for applications, the Secretary had to set criteria for choosing which eligible projects get funded. The criteria include how nationally significant a project is — including whether it would prove MAGLEV technology could work across the country — whether building it quickly would ease congestion in other kinds of transportation and reduce the need for new highways or airports, how much states, regions, and local governments would pay toward it, how many jobs it would create in existing and new industries, whether it would strengthen MAGLEV networks that already have partnership potential, whether federal assistance would encourage public-private partnerships and attract private investment, whether federal assistance would help the project move forward quickly, and whether the project's design and engineering account for and improve its costs over its full lifespan.

(f) Project Selection. Within 90 days after the deadline for applications, the Secretary had to judge the eligible projects against those criteria and pick one or more to fund for preconstruction planning — things like the feasibility studies, major investment studies, and environmental reviews state law requires; pricing out the final design, engineering, and construction work; and any other work needed to help the Secretary decide whether the project should later get money for final design, engineering, and construction. After all the funded projects finished their preconstruction planning, the Secretary had to pick just one of them to receive financial assistance for final design, engineering, and construction.

(g) Joint Ventures. A project run by a joint venture between U.S. and non-U.S. companies — including one that would bring foreign MAGLEV technology into the U.S. — can get financial assistance too, as long as it meets the eligibility rules in subsection (d) and gets picked under subsection (f).

(h) Funding. Congress authorized money from the Highway^* Trust Fund (not counting its Mass Transit Account) to run this program: $15,000,000 for 1999, $20,000,000 for 2000, and $25,000,000 for 2001, available under the same contract-authority rules that apply to regular highway funding — except that the federal cost share follows subsection (b), and when the money becomes available follows the rules just below. Separately, Congress authorized $200,000,000 for each of 2000 and 2001, $250,000,000 for 2002, and $300,000,000 for 2003 — money that, unlike the funds just described, could not be spent until Congress passed an actual yearly appropriation. All of this money stays available until it is spent, not just for one year. States could also use their existing federal funds from the surface transportation block grant program and the congestion mitigation and air quality improvement program to help pay for a selected MAGLEV project, without needing extra non-federal matching money. And a selected MAGLEV project could also get other kinds of federal help available under this title and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, such as loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit.

(i) Low-Speed Project. Out of the $15,000,000 to $25,000,000 authorized above, $5,000,000 had to go toward grants for researching and developing low-speed superconducting MAGLEV technology, meant for public transit in cities, to show it could save energy, ease congestion, and improve safety. Congress also authorized whatever money was necessary for 2000 through 2003 for this low-speed research — money that, like the separate funding described above, could not be spent until Congress made a yearly appropriation, but that then stayed available until spent.