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 program to improve infrastructure development in Appalachia, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Advancing Infrastruc5 ture Development in Appalachia Act’’ or the ‘‘AID in Ap6 palachia Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. BALANCE EXCHANGES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PRO2 GRAM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 23, United 

4 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol5 lowing: 

6 ‘‘§ 171. Balance exchanges for infrastructure program 

7 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 ‘‘(1) ADMINISTRATIVELY ALLOCATED.—The 

9 term ‘administratively allocated’ means the alloca10 tion by the Secretary of budget authority for a 

11 project under the TIFIA program that occurs 

12 when— 

13 ‘‘(A) a potential applicant has been invited 

14 into the creditworthiness phase for a project 

15 under the TIFIA program; or 

16 ‘‘(B) the project is subject to a master 

17 credit agreement (as defined in section 601(a)), 

18 in accordance with section 602(b)(2). 

19 ‘‘(2) APPALACHIAN STATE.—The term ‘Appa20 lachian State’ means a State that contains 1 or 

21 more counties in the Appalachian region (as defined 

22 in section 14102(a) of title 40). 

23 ‘‘(3) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means 

24 the Balance Exchanges for Infrastructure Program 

25 established under subsection (b). 

26 ‘‘(4) TIFIA CARRYOVER BALANCE.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘TIFIA car2 ryover balance’ means the amounts made avail3 able for the TIFIA program for previous fiscal 

4 years that are unobligated and have not been 

5 administratively allocated. 

6 ‘‘(B) INCLUSION.—The term ‘TIFIA car7 ryover balance’ includes— 

8 ‘‘(i) the applicable amount of contract 

9 authority for the amounts described in 

10 subparagraph (A); and 

11 ‘‘(ii) the equivalent amount of obliga12 tion limitation for the fiscal year in which 

13 the Secretary makes a transfer under sub14 section (f)(2). 

15 ‘‘(5) TIFIA PROGRAM.—The term ‘TIFIA pro16 gram’ has the meaning given the term in section 

17 601(a). 

18 ‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab19 lish a program, to be known as the ‘Balance Exchanges 

20 for Infrastructure Program’, in accordance with this sec21 tion to provide flexibility for the Secretary and States to 

22 improve highway infrastructure. 

23 ‘‘(c) OFFER TO FUND PROJECTS OR EXCHANGE

24 FUNDS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) SOLICITATION.—For each fiscal year for 

2 which an amount is reserved under subsection (f)(1), 

3 the Secretary shall— 

4 ‘‘(A) not later than December 1 of that fis5 cal year— 

6 ‘‘(i) solicit requests from Appalachian 

7 States to return amounts under subsection 

8 (d)(1)(A); and 

9 ‘‘(ii) solicit applications from Appa10 lachian States for grants under subsection 

11 (e); and 

12 ‘‘(B) require that, not later than 60 days 

13 after the date of the solicitations under sub14 paragraph (A), each Appalachian State that 

15 elects to participate in the program shall submit 

16 to the Secretary either— 

17 ‘‘(i) a request that describes the 

18 amount that the Appalachian State re19 quests to return under subsection 

20 (d)(1)(A); or 

21 ‘‘(ii) an application for a grant under 

22 subsection (e). 

23 ‘‘(d) EXCHANGE AGREEMENTS.— 

24 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall enter 

25 into an agreement with each Appalachian State that 


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1 submits a request under subsection (c)(1)(A)(i) 

2 under which— 

3 ‘‘(A) the Appalachian State shall return to 

4 the Secretary all, or at the discretion of the Ap5 palachian State, a portion of, the unobligated 

6 amounts from the Highway Trust Fund (in7 cluding the applicable amount of contract au8 thority and an equal amount of special no-year 

9 obligation limitation associated with that con10 tract authority) apportioned to the Appalachian 

11 State for the Appalachian development highway 

12 system under section 14501 of title 40 (but not 

13 including any amounts made available by an ap14 propriations Act without an initial authoriza15 tion); and 

16 ‘‘(B) the Secretary shall transfer to the 

17 Appalachian State, from amounts transferred to 

18 the program under subsection (f)(2) for that 

19 fiscal year, an amount (including the applicable 

20 amount of contract authority and an equal 

21 amount of annual obligation limitation) equal to 

22 the amount that the Appalachian State re23 turned under subparagraph (A) that shall be 

24 used to carry out projects described in para25 graph (3). 


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1 ‘‘(2) STATE LIMITATION.—The amount of con2 tract authority returned by an Appalachian State 

3 under paragraph (1)(A) may not exceed the amount 

4 of the special no-year obligation limitation available 

5 to the Appalachian State prior to the return of the 

6 special no-year obligation limitation under that para7 graph. 

8 ‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.— 

9 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A project eligible to 

10 be carried out using funds transferred to an 

11 Appalachian State under paragraph (1)(B) is a 

12 project described in subsections (b) and (c) of 

13 section 133. 

14 ‘‘(B) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal 

15 share of the cost of a project carried out using 

16 funds transferred to an Appalachian State 

17 under paragraph (1)(B) shall be up to 100 per18 cent, at the discretion of the Appalachian State. 

19 ‘‘(C) APPLICATION OF SECTION 133.—Ex20 cept as otherwise provided in this paragraph, 

21 section 133 shall not apply to a project carried 

22 out using funds transferred to an Appalachian 

23 State under paragraph (1)(B). 

24 ‘‘(4) TOTAL LIMITATION.—For each fiscal year, 

25 the total amount exchanged under paragraph (1) 


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1 shall not exceed the amount available to be trans2 ferred to the program under subsection (f). 

3 ‘‘(5) AMOUNTS EXCHANGED.—For each fiscal 

4 year, if the total amount requested by all Appa5 lachian States to return under paragraph (1)(A) is 

6 greater than the amount described in paragraph (4), 

7 the Secretary shall exchange amounts under para8 graph (1) based on the proportion that— 

9 ‘‘(A) the amount requested to be returned 

10 for the fiscal year by the Appalachian State; 

11 bears to 

12 ‘‘(B) the amount requested to be returned 

13 for the fiscal year by all Appalachian States. 

14 ‘‘(e) APPALACHIAN DEVELOPMENT HIGHWAY SYS15 TEM CORRIDOR GRANTS.— 

16 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Using amounts returned to 

17 the Secretary under subsection (d)(1)(A), the Sec18 retary shall provide grants of contract authority, to 

19 remain available until expended, and subject to spe20 cial no-year obligation limitation, on a competitive 

21 basis to Appalachian States for eligible projects de22 scribed in paragraph (2). 

23 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE PROJECT.—A project eligible to 

24 be carried out with a grant under this subsection is 

25 a project that is— 


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1 ‘‘(A) eligible under section 14501 of title 

2 40 as of the date of enactment of this section; 

3 and 

4 ‘‘(B) reasonably expected to begin con5 struction by not later than 2 years after the 

6 date of obligation of funds provided under this 

7 subsection for the project. 

8 ‘‘(3) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 

9 grant under this subsection, an Appalachian State 

10 shall submit to the Secretary an application at such 

11 time, in such manner, and containing such informa12 tion as the Secretary may require. 

13 ‘‘(4) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of 

14 the cost of a project carried out using a grant pro15 vided under this subsection shall be up to 100 per16 cent, at the discretion of the Appalachian State. 

17 ‘‘(5) LIMITATION.—An Appalachian State that 

18 enters into an agreement to exchange funds under 

19 subsection (d) for any fiscal year shall not be eligible 

20 to receive a grant under this subsection. 

21 ‘‘(f) TRANSFER FROM TIFIA PROGRAM.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—On October 1 of each fiscal 

23 year, the Secretary shall reserve, for the purpose of 

24 funding transfers under paragraph (2) until the 

25 transfers are completed, the amount of TIFIA carryVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:30 Nov 01, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4896.IH H4896

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1 over balance that exceeds the amount available to 

2 carry out the TIFIA program for that fiscal year. 

3 ‘‘(2) TRANSFERS.—For each fiscal year, not 

4 later than 60 days after the date on which the Sec5 retary receives the responses to the solicitations 

6 under subsection (c)(1), the Secretary shall transfer 

7 from the TIFIA program to the program an amount 

8 of contract authority and equal amount of obligation 

9 limitation that is equal to the lesser of— 

10 ‘‘(A) the total amount requested by all Ap11 palachian States for the fiscal year under sub12 section (c)(1)(B)(i); 

13 ‘‘(B) the total amount requested by all Ap14 palachian States for grants under subsection 

15 (c)(1)(B)(ii); and 

16 ‘‘(C) the amount reserved under paragraph 

17 (1).’’. 

18 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap19 ter 1 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by insert20 ing after the item relating to section 170 the following: 

‘‘171. Balance exchanges for infrastructure program.’’. 

Æ 


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