A little-noticed provision of the catchall spending bill approved in December gives state transportation departments unused funds that had been designated by members of Congress for old pet projects. Most of the earmarked money “just wasn’t able to move” because of funding constraints or a lack of adequate planning by state or local officials, said Joung Lee, policy director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
An estimate last year by the Federal Highway Administration put the unused spending figure at about $2 billion. The new law applies to pet projects that are more than 10 years old in which less than 10% of the money had been spent.
Even after the money gets redistributed, there is no guarantee it will be used any more efficiently. Under rules imposed by the highway agency, money must remain in the state for which it was first designated and be used on a project within 50 miles of the original earmark.