Governor Janet Napolitano, the Arizona Department of Transportation and Arizona transportation officials from around the State participated in a Transportation Reauthorization Summit to discuss issues regarding the reauthorization of TEA-21 on May 28, 2003. The Summit provided education on the reauthorization process, acknowledged various stakeholders’ priorities, and identified common areas of interest among Arizona stakeholders.
The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (Tea-21) was signed into law in 1998. It provided a 6-year program with record levels of investment for highways and transit programs. It also provided minimum guarantees to States while providing states and local governments with greater flexibility in the use of the funds.
TEA-21 provided budget categories for highway and transit discretionary spending effectively establishing a budgetary firewall between each of those programs and all other domestic discretionary programs ensuring that transportation funds were used for transportation.TEA-21 expired on 9/30/03.
At that time, the 108th Congress worked on development of a reauthorization of the transportation legislation. However, Congress was unable to finish and pass a bill during this time for a number of reasons.
The 109th Congress is now working on a reauthorization bill which will determine transportation priorities and funding mechanisms.
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