I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4071 
To amend Public Law 109–59 to provide additional transportation flexibility 
and to rescind certain amounts of Federal funding. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 18, 2005 
Mr. FLAKE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To amend Public Law 109–59 to provide additional transpor-
tation flexibility and to rescind certain amounts of Fed-
eral funding. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability and 
Flexibility Associated With Spending on Transportation 
Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. TRANSPORTATION FUNDING FLEXIBILITY. 
(a) HIGHWAY BRIDGE PROGRAM.—Section 144(g)(1) 
of title 23, United States Code, is amended by adding at 
the end the following:
‘‘(D) FUNDING FLEXIBILITY.—If a State 
is provided funds under subparagraph (A) for a 
project described in subparagraph (A), the 
State may use all or any portion of such funds 
to carry out such project or any other project 
eligible for assistance under this section that 
the State designates.’’. 
(b) PROJECTS OF NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SIG-
NIFICANCE.—Section 1301 of the Safe, Accountable, 
Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy 
for Users (Public Law 109–59) is amended by adding at 
the end the following: 
‘‘(n) FUNDING FLEXIBILITY.—If a State is provided 
funds under this section for a project described in the 
table contained in subsection (m), the State may use all 
or any portion of such funds to carry out such project 
or any other project eligible for assistance under this sec-
tion that the State designates.’’. 
(c) NATIONAL
CORRIDOR
INFRASTRUCTURE
IM-
PROVEMENT
PROGRAM.—Section 1302 such Act is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(f) FUNDING FLEXIBILITY.—If a State is provided 
funds under this section for a project described in the 
table contained in subsection (e), the State may use all 
or any portion of such funds to carry out such project
or any other project eligible for assistance under this sec-
tion that the State designates.’’. 
(d) HIGH PRIORITY PROJECTS PROGRAM.—Section 
117 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘(i) FUNDING FLEXIBILITY.—If a State is provided 
funds under this section for a project described in the 
table contained in section 1702 of the Safe, Accountable, 
Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy 
for Users (Public Law 109–59), the State may use all or 
any portion of such funds to carry out such project or 
any other project eligible for assistance under the surface 
transportation program in section 133 that the State des-
ignates.’’. 
(e) 
TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENTS.—Section 
1934 of such Act is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘(d) FUNDING FLEXIBILITY.—If a State is provided 
funds under this section for a project described in the 
table contained in subsection (c), the State may use all 
or any portion of such funds to carry out such project 
or any other project eligible for assistance under the sur-
face transportation program in section 133 of title 23, 
United States Code, that the State designates.’’.
(f) PROJECTS FOR BUS AND BUS-RELATED FACILI-
TIES
AND CLEAN FUNDS GRANT PROGRAM.—Section 
3044 of such Act is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘(d) FUNDING FLEXIBILITY.—If a recipient is pro-
vided funds under this section or section 5308 of title 49, 
United States Code, or both, for a project described in 
the table contained in subsection (a), the recipient may 
use all or any portion of such funds to carry out such 
project or any other project eligible for assistance under 
this section or section 5308 of such title, other than a 
project to fund any operations of buses or bus-related fa-
cilities.’’. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that State departments 
of transportation should take project descriptions in sec-
tion 144(g)(1)(A) of title 23, United States Code, and in 
the tables contained in sections 1301, 1302, 1702, 1934, 
and 3044 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient 
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (Public 
Law 109–59) into consideration if such projects involve 
improving transportation safety. 
SEC. 4. ACROSS-THE-BOARD RESCISSIONS. 
(a) FISCAL YEAR 2006.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—On September 30, 2006, 
there is rescinded $4,718,047,269 of the unobligated 
balances of funds apportioned before such date to 
the States for the Interstate maintenance, national 
highway system, bridge, congestion mitigation and 
air quality improvement, surface transportation 
(other than the STP set-aside programs), metropoli-
tan planning, minimum guarantee, Appalachian de-
velopment highway system, recreational trails, safe 
routes to school, freight intermodal connectors, co-
ordinated border infrastructure, high risk rural road, 
high priority projects, and transportation improve-
ments programs and each of the STP set-aside pro-
grams. 
(2) ALLOCATION
AMONG
STATES.—The Sec-
retary shall determine each State’s share of the 
amount to be rescinded by paragraph (1) by multi-
plying $4,718,047,269 by the ratio of the aggregate 
amount apportioned to such State for fiscal year 
2006 for all the programs referred to in paragraph 
(1) to the aggregate amount apportioned to all 
States for such fiscal year for those programs. 
(3) CALCULATIONS.—To determine the alloca-
tion of the amount to be rescinded for a State under 
paragraph (2) among the programs referred to in
paragraph (1), the Secretary of Transportation shall 
make the following calculations: 
(A) The Secretary shall multiply such 
amount to be rescinded by the ratio that the 
aggregate amount of unobligated funds avail-
able to the State on September 30, 2006, for 
each such program bears to the aggregate 
amount of unobligated funds available to the 
State on September 30, 2006, for all such pro-
grams. 
(B) The Secretary shall multiply such 
amount to be rescinded by the ratio that the 
aggregate of the amount apportioned to the 
State for each such program for fiscal year 
2006 bears to the aggregate amount appor-
tioned to the State for all such programs for 
fiscal year 2006. 
(4) ALLOCATION AMONG PROGRAMS.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in con-
sultation with the State, shall rescind for the 
State from each program referred to in para-
graph (1) the amount determined for the pro-
gram under paragraph (3)(A). 
(B) SPECIAL RULE.—
(i) RESTORATION OF FUNDS FOR COV-
ERED
PROGRAMS.—If the rescission cal-
culated under paragraph (3)(A) for a cov-
ered program exceeds the amount cal-
culated for the covered program under 
paragraph (3)(B), the State shall imme-
diately restore to the apportionment ac-
count for the covered program from the 
unobligated balances of programs referred 
to in paragraph (1) (other than covered 
programs) the amount of funds required so 
that the net rescission from the covered 
program does not exceed the amount cal-
culated for the covered program under 
paragraph (3)(B). 
(ii) 
TREATMENT
OF
RESTORED 
FUNDS.—Any funds restored under clause 
(i) shall be deemed to be the funds that 
were rescinded for the purposes of obliga-
tion. 
(C) COVERED
PROGRAM
DEFINED.—In 
subparagraph (B), the term ‘‘covered program’’ 
means a program authorized under sections 130 
and 152 of title 23, United States Code, para-
graph (2) or (3) of section 133(d) of that title,
section 144 of that title, section 149 of that 
title, or section 1404 of the Safe, Accountable, 
Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: 
A Legacy for Users (Public Law 109–59). 
(5) LIMITATION
ON
RECALCULATION
OF
EQ-
UITY BONUS PROGRAM.—Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the amounts determined, and the 
amounts allocated, under section 105 of title 23, 
United States Code, for fiscal year 2006 shall not be 
recalculated to take into account a rescission made 
pursuant to this subsection. 
(6) STP SET-ASIDE
PROGRAM
DEFINED.—In 
this subsection, the term ‘‘STP set-aside program’’ 
means the amount set aside under section 133(d) of 
title 23, United States Code, for each of transpor-
tation enhancement activities and the division be-
tween urbanized areas of over 200,000 population 
and other areas. 
(b) FISCAL YEAR 2007, 2008, AND 2009.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 
there is rescinded 10 percent of each amount au-
thorized to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 
2007, 2008, and 2009 by the Safe, Accountable, 
Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A 
Legacy for Users (Public Law 109–59), including
any amendment made by such Act, and including 
any amount authorized to be appropriated for the 
equity bonus program under section 105 of title 23, 
United States Code, but excluding any amount au-
thorized to be appropriated for the highway safety 
improvement program. 
(2) TIMING.—A rescission made by paragraph 
(1) of an amount authorized to be appropriated for 
a fiscal year shall take affect on October 1 of such 
fiscal year before any apportionment or allocation of 
such amount and before such amount is subject to 
any set aside or subtraction. 
(3) LIMITATION
ON
RECALCULATION
OF
EQ-
UITY BONUS PROGRAM.—Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the amounts determined, and the 
amounts allocated, under section 105 of title 23, 
United States Code, for a fiscal year shall not be re-
calculated to take into account a rescission made by 
this subsection. 
(c) SEPTEMBER 30, 2009.—Section 10212 of the 
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Eq-
uity Act: A Legacy for Users (Public Law 109–59) is 
amended in subsection (a) by inserting after ‘‘high risk 
rural road,’’ the following: ‘‘high priority projects, trans-
portation improvements,’’.
(d) REPORTS.—Not later than the 60th day following 
the date of each rescission made by subsection (a) or (b), 
the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation with the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall 
submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report 
containing the amount rescinded for each program re-
ferred to in subsection (a) and the amount rescinded for 
each program or activity for which there is a rescission 
made by subsection (b). 
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