DOT MOE Requirement Affects Redistribution of ARRA Funds

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5, ARRA) established a transportation maintenance-of-effort (MOE) requirement for states to ensure that they did not use ARRA funds to replace state funding for transportation. In November 2010, the Department of Transportation (DOT) collected preliminary data regarding states’ compliance with the MOE requirement. This data indicated that numerous states did not meet their MOE amounts and, depending on final data, may be ineligible for the August 2011 redistribution of unobligated ARRA transportation funds.