AID in Appalachia Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4896 To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish a program to improve infrastructure development in Appalachia, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 29, 2019 Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia (for himself, Mr. TRONE, Mrs. MILLER, and Mr. MCKINLEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish a pro- gram to improve infrastructure development in Appa- lachia, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Advancing Infrastruc- 4 ture Development in Appalachia Act’’ or the ‘‘AID in Ap- 5 palachia Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4896 IH SEC. 2. BALANCE EXCHANGES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PRO- 1 GRAM. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 23, United 3 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 4 lowing: 5 ‘‘§ 171. Balance exchanges for infrastructure program 6 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 7 ‘‘(1) ADMINISTRATIVELY ALLOCATED.—The 8 term ‘administratively allocated’ means the alloca- 9 tion by the Secretary of budget authority for a 10 project under the TIFIA program that occurs 11 when— 12 ‘‘(A) a potential applicant has been invited 13 into the creditworthiness phase for a project 14 under the TIFIA program; or 15 ‘‘(B) the project is subject to a master 16 credit agreement (as defined in section 601(a)), 17 in accordance with section 602(b)(2). 18 ‘‘(2) APPALACHIAN STATE.—The term ‘Appa- 19 lachian State’ means a State that contains 1 or 20 more counties in the Appalachian region (as defined 21 in section 14102(a) of title 40). 22 ‘‘(3) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means 23 the Balance Exchanges for Infrastructure Program 24 established under subsection (b). 25 ‘‘(4) TIFIA CARRYOVER BALANCE.— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4896 IH ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘TIFIA car- 1 ryover balance’ means the amounts made avail- 2 able for the TIFIA program for previous fiscal 3 years that are unobligated and have not been 4 administratively allocated. 5 ‘‘(B) INCLUSION.—The term ‘TIFIA car- 6 ryover balance’ includes— 7 ‘‘(i) the applicable amount of contract 8 authority for the amounts described in 9 subparagraph (A); and 10 ‘‘(ii) the equivalent amount of obliga- 11 tion limitation for the fiscal year in which 12 the Secretary makes a transfer under sub- 13 section (f)(2). 14 ‘‘(5) TIFIA PROGRAM.—The term ‘TIFIA pro- 15 gram’ has the meaning given the term in section 16 601(a). 17 ‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab- 18 lish a program, to be known as the ‘Balance Exchanges 19 for Infrastructure Program’, in accordance with this sec- 20 tion to provide flexibility for the Secretary and States to 21 improve highway infrastructure. 22 ‘‘(c) OFFER TO FUND PROJECTS OR EXCHANGE 23 FUNDS.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4896 IH ‘‘(1) SOLICITATION.—For each fiscal year for 1 which an amount is reserved under subsection (f)(1), 2 the Secretary shall— 3 ‘‘(A) not later than December 1 of that fis- 4 cal year— 5 ‘‘(i) solicit requests from Appalachian 6 States to return amounts under subsection 7 (d)(1)(A); and 8 ‘‘(ii) solicit applications from Appa- 9 lachian States for grants under subsection 10 (e); and 11 ‘‘(B) require that, not later than 60 days 12 after the date of the solicitations under sub- 13 paragraph (A), each Appalachian State that 14 elects to participate in the program shall submit 15 to the Secretary either— 16 ‘‘(i) a request that describes the 17 amount that the Appalachian State re- 18 quests to return under subsection 19 (d)(1)(A); or 20 ‘‘(ii) an application for a grant under 21 subsection (e). 22 ‘‘(d) EXCHANGE AGREEMENTS.— 23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall enter 24 into an agreement with each Appalachian State that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 4896 IH submits a request under subsection (c)(1)(A)(i) 1 under which— 2 ‘‘(A) the Appalachian State shall return to 3 the Secretary all, or at the discretion of the Ap- 4 palachian State, a portion of, the unobligated 5 amounts from the Highway Trust Fund (in- 6 cluding the applicable amount of contract au- 7 thority and an equal amount of special no-year 8 obligation limitation associated with that con- 9 tract authority) apportioned to the Appalachian 10 State for the Appalachian development highway 11 system under section 14501 of title 40 (but not 12 including any amounts made available by an ap- 13 propriations Act without an initial authoriza- 14 tion); and 15 ‘‘(B) the Secretary shall transfer to the 16 Appalachian State, from amounts transferred to 17 the program under subsection (f)(2) for that 18 fiscal year, an amount (including the applicable 19 amount of contract authority and an equal 20 amount of annual obligation limitation) equal to 21 the amount that the Appalachian State re- 22 turned under subparagraph (A) that shall be 23 used to carry out projects described in para- 24 graph (3). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 4896 IH ‘‘(2) STATE LIMITATION.—The amount of con- 1 tract authority returned by an Appalachian State 2 under paragraph (1)(A) may not exceed the amount 3 of the special no-year obligation limitation available 4 to the Appalachian State prior to the return of the 5 special no-year obligation limitation under that para- 6 graph. 7 ‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.— 8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A project eligible to 9 be carried out using funds transferred to an 10 Appalachian State under paragraph (1)(B) is a 11 project described in subsections (b) and (c) of 12 section 133. 13 ‘‘(B) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal 14 share of the cost of a project carried out using 15 funds transferred to an Appalachian State 16 under paragraph (1)(B) shall be up to 100 per- 17 cent, at the discretion of the Appalachian State. 18 ‘‘(C) APPLICATION OF SECTION 133.—Ex- 19 cept as otherwise provided in this paragraph, 20 section 133 shall not apply to a project carried 21 out using funds transferred to an Appalachian 22 State under paragraph (1)(B). 23 ‘‘(4) TOTAL LIMITATION.—For each fiscal year, 24 the total amount exchanged under paragraph (1) 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 4896 IH shall not exceed the amount available to be trans- 1 ferred to the program under subsection (f). 2 ‘‘(5) AMOUNTS EXCHANGED.—For each fiscal 3 year, if the total amount requested by all Appa- 4 lachian States to return under paragraph (1)(A) is 5 greater than the amount described in paragraph (4), 6 the Secretary shall exchange amounts under para- 7 graph (1) based on the proportion that— 8 ‘‘(A) the amount requested to be returned 9 for the fiscal year by the Appalachian State; 10 bears to 11 ‘‘(B) the amount requested to be returned 12 for the fiscal year by all Appalachian States. 13 ‘‘(e) APPALACHIAN DEVELOPMENT HIGHWAY SYS- 14 TEM CORRIDOR GRANTS.— 15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Using amounts returned to 16 the Secretary under subsection (d)(1)(A), the Sec- 17 retary shall provide grants of contract authority, to 18 remain available until expended, and subject to spe- 19 cial no-year obligation limitation, on a competitive 20 basis to Appalachian States for eligible projects de- 21 scribed in paragraph (2). 22 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE PROJECT.—A project eligible to 23 be carried out with a grant under this subsection is 24 a project that is— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 4896 IH ‘‘(A) eligible under section 14501 of title 1 40 as of the date of enactment of this section; 2 and 3 ‘‘(B) reasonably expected to begin con- 4 struction by not later than 2 years after the 5 date of obligation of funds provided under this 6 subsection for the project. 7 ‘‘(3) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 8 grant under this subsection, an Appalachian State 9 shall submit to the Secretary an application at such 10 time, in such manner, and containing such informa- 11 tion as the Secretary may require. 12 ‘‘(4) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of 13 the cost of a project carried out using a grant pro- 14 vided under this subsection shall be up to 100 per- 15 cent, at the discretion of the Appalachian State. 16 ‘‘(5) LIMITATION.—An Appalachian State that 17 enters into an agreement to exchange funds under 18 subsection (d) for any fiscal year shall not be eligible 19 to receive a grant under this subsection. 20 ‘‘(f) TRANSFER FROM TIFIA PROGRAM.— 21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—On October 1 of each fiscal 22 year, the Secretary shall reserve, for the purpose of 23 funding transfers under paragraph (2) until the 24 transfers are completed, the amount of TIFIA carry- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •HR 4896 IH over balance that exceeds the amount available to 1 carry out the TIFIA program for that fiscal year. 2 ‘‘(2) TRANSFERS.—For each fiscal year, not 3 later than 60 days after the date on which the Sec- 4 retary receives the responses to the solicitations 5 under subsection (c)(1), the Secretary shall transfer 6 from the TIFIA program to the program an amount 7 of contract authority and equal amount of obligation 8 limitation that is equal to the lesser of— 9 ‘‘(A) the total amount requested by all Ap- 10 palachian States for the fiscal year under sub- 11 section (c)(1)(B)(i); 12 ‘‘(B) the total amount requested by all Ap- 13 palachian States for grants under subsection 14 (c)(1)(B)(ii); and 15 ‘‘(C) the amount reserved under paragraph 16 (1).’’. 17 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap- 18 ter 1 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by insert- 19 ing after the item relating to section 170 the following: 20 ‘‘171. Balance exchanges for infrastructure program.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS