The Bureau of Indian Affairs published its final Tribal Transportation Program rule on November 7, 2016, but publication did not make every requirement immediately operative. The general effective date is December 7, 2016. A separate compliance date, November 7, 2017, applies to proposed roads already in the National Tribal Transportation Facility Inventory. [2016-26141]
That second date concerns section 170.443. To remain in the inventory, the existing proposed-road entries need the specified documentation completed and submitted for BIA and Federal Highway Administration approval. A proposed facility is one that does not yet exist; under the final section, it must meet program eligibility requirements and be open to the public when constructed. [2016-26141]
The December 19, 2014 proposal supplies the historical explanation. BIA sought to align older regulations with changes in transportation law and program delivery, while addressing longstanding uncertainty over proposed and access roads in the inventory. Its discussion of program agreements concerned qualifying tribes and excluded inherently federal functions. The proposal establishes the rule's development, not an alternative set of final deadlines. [2016-26141][2014-29604]
The practical distinction is between a rule taking effect and a particular inventory entry meeting its conditions. Neither event is itself a construction award. Planning records must address financing and maintenance, among other matters, before the inventory question is resolved. Reading proposal and final rule together clarifies that sequence, but the pair remains one government evidence chain rather than independent corroboration of results. [2016-26141][2014-29604]
Source documents
- Tribal Transportation Programhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-11-07/html/2016-26141.htm
- Tribal Transportation Programhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2014-12-19/html/2014-29604.htm