23 U.S.C. § 201 — Federal lands and tribal transportation programs

(a) Purpose. The Secretary of Transportation must work with the Secretaries of the federal land agencies to create one uniform policy for all public federal and tribal transportation facilities. This policy should apply the same rules used for Federal-aid highways to federal lands transportation facilities, tribal transportation facilities, and federal lands access facilities. (b) Availability of Funds. Money set aside for the tribal, federal lands, and federal lands access transportation programs becomes available for contracts once it is divided up ("apportioned"), or on October 1 of the fiscal year if no dividing up is needed. Any money left unspent three years after the end of the fiscal year it was authorized for is lost. The Secretary in charge of the money can take on obligations, approve projects, and sign contracts; these become binding promises by the United States to pay, and the money counts as spent once it is obligated. Money authorized for a fiscal year after this section became law counts as spent once the total authorized for that year and all earlier years has been obligated. Money later freed up — by paying a final bill or changing a project's authorization — goes back into the pool of unobligated money and can be used right away. This subsection does not apply to money authorized before this paragraph became law. Despite any other law, once the Secretary (or the right federal land agency) approves the engineering, design, and buying work for a project, or approves the plans, specs, and cost estimates for building it, the federal government is considered legally obligated to pay the full eligible cost of the project; this does not change the state's share of the cost or when federal salary money gets obligated. The federal government pays 100 percent of the cost of tribal transportation program and federal lands transportation program projects. For federal lands access program projects, the federal share can be anywhere up to 100 percent. (c) Transportation Planning. The Secretary must work with each land agency's Secretary to set up planning steps for federal and tribal transportation facilities that match the planning process used under sections 134 and 135, and must approve the transportation improvement program that comes out of this planning. Any regionally important tribal, federal lands, or federal lands access project must be developed together with state and metropolitan planning organizations, and included in the right program plans. Approved tribal and federal lands transportation improvement programs must be automatically included in state and metropolitan plans, without extra steps. The Secretary and the land agency Secretaries must, where it makes sense, set up systems to manage safety, bridges, pavement, and congestion for these facilities. The land agencies must collect and report the data needed to run these programs; tribal data collection must follow the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. This data must include the condition of federal lands and tribal transportation facilities, and inspection records for any federal bridge open to the public. The Secretary sets the standards for collecting and reporting this data. Beyond that, each entity running a tribal transportation project must, within 90 days after the fiscal year ends, report to the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior: the names of its projects and activities, what those projects were, their current status, and an estimate of jobs created and kept. The Secretary may run cooperative research and technology projects with federal land agencies, as it sees fit. For work on federal lands and federal lands access facilities and other federally owned public roads, the Secretary may combine and use up to 20 percent of the money authorized under sections 203 and 204 each year; that money can also pay for bridge inspections on any federally owned bridge, even one not on the official inventory, and for planning work by federal land agencies. (d) Reimbursable Agreements. When the Secretary does work for a state, local, or tribal government under a reimbursable agreement, the Secretary may record the amount owed as an account receivable, without regard to other laws. The Secretary must credit money received from that government to the right account within 90 days of first asking for payment. (e) Transfers. To use money efficiently, the Secretary can move funds between the federal lands transportation program and the federal lands access program, as long as the Secretary, the relevant land agency Secretaries, state transportation departments, and local governments agree. Money moved this way must be credited back to the program it came from, using money that is available for use at the time it's credited back. (f) Alternative Contracting Methods. Despite other laws, including federal contracting rules, the Secretary can use any contracting method available to a state under this title, on behalf of a federal land agency using funds under sections 203, 204, or 308; on behalf of a federal land agency using money under section 1535 of title 31 for listed eligible uses; or on behalf of a tribal government using funds under section 202(b)(7)(D). These contracting methods include at least: bundling projects together, bundling bridges together, design-build contracts, two-phase contracting, long-term concession agreements, and any method tested — or that could be tested — under an experimental contracting program run by the Secretary. Using these methods does not change the federal share of a project's cost, or when federal salary money gets obligated.