The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act provides a suballocation of Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funding to the CMAP urbanized area from funds apportioned to the State of Illinois for a broad range of eligible transportation projects. Due in part to the broad project eligibilities, historic practices, and differing subregional emphases on the individual priorities of ON TO 2050, the MPO Policy Committee has delegated STP programming authority to the regional Councils of Mayors and City of Chicago.
The distribution of funding and programming procedures are outlined in an agreement between the Council of Mayors and City of Chicago that was updated and endorsed by the MPO Policy Committee and CMAP Board on October 11, 2017. This agreement calls for establishing a shared fund for accomplishing large regional projects, and making changes to the local council and City of Chicago distribution of funding and programming methodologies to place more emphasis on Performance-Based Programming decisions and accomplishment of the goals of ON TO 2050. The provisions of the agreement will be phased in during federal fiscal years 2018-2021. During the phase-in period, previously programmed project phases will continue to be implemented.
A new STP Project Selection Committee is also called for in the agreement. The committee met throughout 2018 to discuss establishing the Shared Fund and Active Program Management provisions called for in the agreement. On September 25, 2018, the committee approved the Shared Fund Application Booklet and STP Active Program Management Policies. To ensure that all communities within the region have reasonable access to federal funds without an undue burden caused by lack of resources for required local matching funds, on November 28, 2018, the committee approved a Policy for the use of TDCH for STP funded projects.