23 USC 125 – Emergency relief
(a)
(1) a natural disaster over a wide area, such as by a flood, hurricane, tidal wave, earthquake, severe storm, wildfire, or landslide; or
(2) catastrophic failure from any external cause.
Terms Used In 23 USC 125
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Budget authority: Authority provided by law to enter into obligations that will result in outlays of Federal funds. Budget authority may be classified by the period of availability (one-year, multiyear, no-year), by the timing of congressional action (current or permanent), or by the manner of determining the amount available (definite or indefinite).
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
- State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
- vehicle: includes every description of carriage or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on land. See 1 USC 4
(b)
(c)
(1)
(2)
(A) not more than $100,000,000 is authorized to be obligated in any 1 fiscal year commencing after September 30, 1980, to carry out this section, except that, if for any fiscal year the total of all obligations under this section is less than the amount authorized to be obligated for the fiscal year, the unobligated balance of that amount shall—
(i) remain available until expended; and
(ii) be in addition to amounts otherwise available to carry out this section for each year; and
(B)(i) pending such appropriation or replenishment, the Secretary may obligate from any funds appropriated at any time for obligation in accordance with this title, including existing Federal-aid appropriations, such sums as are necessary for the immediate prosecution of the work herein authorized; and
(ii) funds obligated under this subparagraph shall be reimbursed from the appropriation or replenishment.
(d)
(1)
(A) no funds shall be so expended unless an emergency has been declared by the Governor of the State with concurrence by the Secretary, unless the President has declared the emergency to be a major disaster for the purposes of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) for which concurrence of the Secretary is not required; and
(B) the Secretary has received an application from the State transportation department that includes a comprehensive list of all eligible project sites and repair costs by not later than 2 years after the natural disaster or catastrophic failure.
(2)
(A)
(i) meets the current geometric and construction standards required for the types and volume of traffic that the facility will carry over its design life; and
(ii) incorporates economically justifiable improvements that will mitigate the risk of recurring damage from extreme weather, flooding, and other natural disasters.
(B)
(3)
(A)
(B)
(i) raising roadway grades;
(ii) relocating roadways in a floodplain to higher ground above projected flood elevation levels or away from slide prone areas;
(iii) stabilizing slide areas;
(iv) stabilizing slopes;
(v) lengthening or raising bridges to increase waterway openings;
(vi) increasing the size or number of drainage structures;
(vii) replacing culverts with bridges or upsizing culverts;
(viii) installing seismic retrofits on bridges;
(ix) adding scour protection at bridges, installing riprap, or adding other scour, stream stability, coastal, or other hydraulic countermeasures, including spur dikes; and
(x) the use of natural infrastructure to mitigate the risk of recurring damage or the cost of future repair from extreme weather, flooding, and other natural disasters.
(4)
(A) an event not declared a major disaster or emergency by the President under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.);
(B) an event declared a major disaster or emergency by the President under that Act if the debris removal is not eligible for assistance under section 403, 407, or 502 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 5170b, 5173, 5192); or
(C) projects eligible for assistance under this section located on tribal transportation facilities, Federal lands transportation facilities, or other federally owned roads that are open to public travel (as defined in subsection (e)(1)).
(5)
(e)
(1)
(A)
(i) is maintained;
(ii) is open to the general public; and
(iii) can accommodate travel by a standard passenger vehicle, without restrictive gates or prohibitive signs or regulations, other than for general traffic control or restrictions based on size, weight, or class of registration.
(B)
(2)
(3)
(A)
(B)
(i) those reimbursements to Federal agencies and Indian tribal governments shall be transferred to the account from which the expenditure was made, or to a similar account that remains available for obligation; and
(ii) the budget authority associated with the expenditure shall be restored to the agency from which the authority was derived and shall be available for obligation until the end of the fiscal year following the year in which the transfer occurs.
(f)
(g)