On December 5, 2015 President Obama signed into law the Congressional Transportation Bill, FAST Act. Tribes around the country worked together, through the Tribal Transportation Unity Caucus (TTUC), who approached Congress to include a number of Tribal Transportation elements into the Bill.
Here are some highlights for the Tribal Transportation Program (TTP) & Tribal Transit Program:
- Increased funding to the TTP, from $465M in 2016 with $10M annual step increase to $505M in 2020.
- U.S. DOT is required to have Tribal Self-Governance to expand into their Department by the end of 2018. through a negotiated rule making process with Tribal and Federal Representatives.
- Tribal Transit annual funding formula increased from $25M under MAP-21 to $30M in the FAST Act, the competitive grant amount remained at $5M annually.
- Unfortunately the High Priority Projects (HPP) was not included in the FAST Act.