Office of Environmental Management

NEPA Assignment Program Overview - Effective in Florida as of 12/14/2016

Section 6005(a) of the SAFETEA-LU established a Surface Transportation Project Delivery Program that allowed the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation to assign to certain states the USDOT Secretary's responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.) and all or part of the USDOT Secretary's responsibilities  for environmental review, consultation, or other action required under any Federal environmental law with respect to one or more highway projects within the State. As modified by MAP-21, this assignment of responsibility became applicable to all states.

Pursuant to 23 United States Code (U.S.C.) 327, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has assumed Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for highway projects on the State Highway System (SHS) and Local Agency Program (LAP) projects off the SHS. In general, FDOT's assumption includes all highway and roadway projects in Florida whose source of federal funding comes from FHWA or which constitute a federal action through FHWA. This includes responsibilities for environmental review, interagency consultation and other regulatory compliance-related actions pertaining to the review or approval of NEPA projects. Therefore, whereas FHWA was previously identified as the Lead Federal Agency, this function is now served by FDOT with approval authority resting in the Office of Environmental Management (OEM).

Assignment Scope:

• FDOT would accept the Assignment of the USDOT Secretary's responsibilities for all NEPA document types (CE, EA and EIS) and all environmental regulations/laws (Section 4(f), Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, etc.) for highway projects.