23 U.S.C. § 147 — Construction of ferry boats and ferry terminal facilities

(a) Program. The Secretary must run a program to fund building ferry boats and ferry terminal facilities, following section 129(c). (b) Federal Share. The federal government pays 80 percent of the cost to build ferry boats, ferry terminals, and ferry maintenance facilities under this section. (c) Distribution of Funds. All (100 percent) of the money made available to ferry systems and the public entities that develop them each fiscal year gets divided up using the formula in subsection (d). (d) Formula. That money is split three ways: 35 percent goes out based on each ferry system's share of the total number of passengers (including people in vehicles) carried in the most recent year with available data; another 35 percent goes out based on each system's share of the total number of vehicles carried in that year; and the remaining 30 percent goes out based on each system's share of the total route miles, measured in nautical miles, serviced in that year. (e) Redistribution of Unobligated Amounts. If money given to an entity under subsection (c) is still unspent by the end of the third fiscal year after it was allocated, the Secretary must take that money back. The following year, the Secretary must redistribute it using the same formula, but only among entities that did not have money taken back. (f) Minimum Amount. Even under the formula, a state with a qualifying entity must still get at least $100,000 under this section each fiscal year. (g) Implementation. Funding must be allocated using the most recent data collected for the national ferry database created under the 2005 SAFETEA-LU law. To be eligible for funding, a state must have submitted data for at least one ferry service in that state in the most recent collection for that database. The Secretary may adjust the submitted data as needed to fix misreported or inconsistent numbers. (h) Authorization of Appropriations. Money is authorized from the Highway Trust Fund, not counting its Mass Transit Account, to carry out this section: $110,000,000 for fiscal year 2022; $112,000,000 for fiscal year 2023; $114,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; $116,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; and $118,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. (i) Period of Availability. Unlike the usual rule in section 118(b), money made available under this section stays available until it is spent, with no expiration. (j) Applicability. All the rules of this chapter that normally apply to the National Highway System also apply to money spent under this section, except for the rules about apportionment formulas and federal cost-share, and except where the Secretary decides a rule does not fit with this section. (k) Additional Uses. Despite any other law, an eligible entity may also use money from this section to pay its ongoing operating costs, not just construction costs.