Title: Rural Road Safety Act
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works

Summary:
Rural Road Safety Act
This bill requires states to dedicate at least 7.5% of apportioned funds each fiscal year under the highway safety improvement program for construction and operational improvements on high risk rural roads.
The Department of Transportation must update its guidance on improving safety on rural roads to include new best practices for reducing fatalities on such roads.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4338 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4338

  To amend title 23, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
   Transportation to ensure that States set aside certain funds for 
construction and operational improvements on high risk rural roads, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 16, 2019

Ms. Finkenauer (for herself and Mr. Westerman) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 23, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
   Transportation to ensure that States set aside certain funds for 
construction and operational improvements on high risk rural roads, and 
                          for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rural Road Safety Act''.

SEC. 2. HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 148 of title 23, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (g)(1)--
                    (A) by striking ``If the fatality rate'' and 
                inserting ``(A) In general--If the fatality rate'';
                    (B) by striking ``for fiscal year 2009'' and all 
                that follows through the period at the end and 
                inserting ``for the previous fiscal year for high risk 
                rural roads under subsection (l).''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) Treatment of projects.--Notwithstanding any 
                other provision of law, projects carried out under this 
                paragraph shall be treated as projects on a Federal-aid 
                highway under this chapter.''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(l) High Risk Rural Roads.--
            ``(1) In general.--Of the amounts apportioned to a State 
        for fiscal year 2020 and each fiscal year thereafter under this 
        section, the State shall obligate for construction and 
        operational improvements on high risk rural roads an amount 
        that is not less than 7.5 percent of such amount apportioned 
        for such fiscal year.
            ``(2) Special rule.--A State may use funds apportioned to 
        the State pursuant to this subsection for any project under 
        this section if the State certifies to the Secretary that the 
        State has met all of State needs for construction and 
        operational improvements on high risk rural roads.
            ``(3) Treatment of construction and operational 
        improvements.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
        construction and operational improvements under this subsection 
        shall be treated as a project on a Federal-aid highway under 
        this chapter.''.
    (b) Update of High Risk Rural Roads Best Practices.--Not later than 
180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
Transportation shall submit to Congress an update to the manual 
described in section 1112 of MAP-21 (23 U.S.C. 148 note) to include any 
best practices not listed in such manual for communities to reduce 
fatalities on rural roads.
    (c) GAO Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit 
to Congress an update to the report published by the Government 
Accountability Office on May 28, 2004, titled ``Highway Safety: Federal 
and State Efforts to Address Rural Road Safety Challenges'' 
describing--
            (1) ongoing funding and policy challenges to addressing 
        rural road safety; and
            (2) successful risk mitigation measures taken on the 
        Federal and State levels.
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