State DOTs Might Soon Receive Old Earmark Funds

A little-noticed provision in the five-year transportation funding bill that became law on Dec. 18 might offer an unexpected funding bonus for state departments of transportation.

According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the new law says that "notwithstanding the original period of availability" of the earmarks, the DOTs that were originally designated for these earmarks will now be able to access the unused funds for projects within 50 miles of the original site for up to three years after notifying the federal Department of Transportation how they will spend the money.

Sometime early in 2016, the Federal Highway Administration is expected to make available a list of all such earmarks, allowing state DOTs to begin the process of re-positioning the funds.

“It may cover quite a number of earmarks that might otherwise indefinitely remain unspent and … it may support a significant amount of new infrastructure investment based on money Congress already authorized but that state DOTs could not actually spend," AASHTO Policy Director Joung Lee told the organization’s journal.