H.R.5797

            I 

116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION H. R. 5797 

To amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to funding the rec-
reational trails program, to require a study to determine the best avail-
able estimate of the total amount of nonhighway recreational fuel taxes 
received by the Secretary of the Treasury, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 6, 2020 
Mr. WELCH (for himself, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. SIMPSON, Ms. KUSTER 

of New Hampshire, and Mr. STEWART) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastruc-
ture, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period 
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 

A BILL 
To amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to 

funding the recreational trails program, to require a 
study to determine the best available estimate of the 
total amount of nonhighway recreational fuel taxes re-
ceived by the Secretary of the Treasury, and for other 
purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

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2 

•HR 5797 IH

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘RTP Full Funding 2

Act of 2020’’. 3

SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4

Congress finds that— 5

(1) the recreational trails program under sec-6

tion 206 of title 23, United States Code— 7

(A) helps develop and maintain valuable 8

trail infrastructure across the United States; 9

(B) benefits millions of diverse trail users, 10

including users who participate in hiking, bicy-11

cling, in-line skating, equestrian use, cross- 12

country skiing, snowmobiling, off-road motorcy-13

cling, all-terrain vehicle riding, 4-wheel driving, 14

and other off-road motorized vehicle use; and 15

(C)(i) embraces the user-pay-user-benefit 16

model of the Highway Trust Fund; and 17

(ii) is funded by a Federal tax on fuel used 18

for nonhighway recreation; 19

(2) to ensure that Federal taxes collected from 20

nonhighway recreation are appropriately returned to 21

the States for the recreational trails program, an ac-22

curate estimate of the total amount of nonhighway 23

fuel taxes collected is necessary; and 24

(3) an accurate study to produce a best avail-25

able estimate of the total amount of nonhighway rec-26

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3 

•HR 5797 IH

reational fuel taxes received by the Secretary of the 1

Treasury will help inform Congress in continuing to 2

authorize the recreational trails program. 3

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 4

In this Act: 5

(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-6

trator’’ means the Administrator of the Federal 7

Highway Administration. 8

(2) HIGHWAY TRUST FUND.—The term ‘‘High-9

way Trust Fund’’ means the Highway Trust Fund 10

established by section 9503(a) of the Internal Rev-11

enue Code of 1986. 12

(3) NONHIGHWAY RECREATIONAL FUEL 13

TAXES.—The term ‘‘nonhighway recreational fuel 14

taxes’’ means taxes under section 4041 and 4081 of 15

the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 with respect to 16

fuel used in vehicles on recreational trails or back 17

country terrain (including vehicles registered for 18

highway use when used on recreational trails, trail 19

access roads not eligible for funding under title 23, 20

United States Code, or back country terrain). 21

(4) RECREATIONAL TRAILS PROGRAM.—The 22

term ‘‘recreational trails program’’ means the rec-23

reational trails program under section 206 of title 24

23, United States Code. 25

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4 

•HR 5797 IH

(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 1

the Secretary of Transportation. 2

SEC. 4. NONHIGHWAY RECREATIONAL FUEL STUDY. 3

(a) ASSESSMENT; REPORT.— 4

(1) ASSESSMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 5

the date of enactment of this Act and not less fre-6

quently than once every 5 years thereafter, as deter-7

mined by the Secretary, the Secretary shall carry 8

out an assessment of the best available estimate of 9

the total amount of nonhighway recreational fuel 10

taxes received by the Secretary of the Treasury and 11

transferred to the Highway Trust Fund for the pe-12

riod covered by the assessment. 13

(2) REPORT.—After carrying out each assess-14

ment under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall sub-15

mit to the Committees on Finance and Environment 16

and Public Works of the Senate and the Committees 17

on Ways and Means and Transportation and Infra-18

structure of the House of Representatives a report 19

that includes— 20

(A) a description of the results of the as-21

sessment; 22

(B) an evaluation of whether the current 23

recreational trails program funding level of each 24

participating State accurately reflects the ap-25

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5 

•HR 5797 IH

portionment criteria described in section 1

133(h)(5) of title 23, United States Code; and 2

(C) in the case of the first report sub-3

mitted under this paragraph, an estimate of the 4

frequency with which the Secretary anticipates 5

carrying out the assessment under paragraph 6

(1), subject to the condition that such an as-7

sessment shall be carried out not less frequently 8

than once every 5 years. 9

(b) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out an assessment 10

under subsection (a)(1), the Secretary may consult with, 11

as the Secretary determines to be appropriate— 12

(1) the heads of— 13

(A) State agencies designated by Gov-14

ernors pursuant to section 206(c)(1) of title 23, 15

United States Code, to administer the rec-16

reational trails program; and 17

(B) division offices of the Department of 18

Transportation; 19

(2) the Secretary of the Treasury; 20

(3) the Administrator; and 21

(4) groups representing recreational activities 22

and interests, including hiking, biking and mountain 23

biking, horseback riding, water trails, snowshoeing, 24

cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, off-highway mo-25

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6 

•HR 5797 IH

torcycling, all-terrain vehicles, recreational off-high-1

way vehicles, and other offroad motorized vehicle ac-2

tivities, and recreational trail advocates. 3

(c) FUNDING.— 4

(1) IN GENERAL.—For the first fiscal year be-5

ginning after the date of enactment of this Act, the 6

Secretary shall set aside from funds available to the 7

Secretary to carry out the recreational trails pro-8

gram and not otherwise obligated an amount not 9

greater than $3,000,000 to conduct the assessment 10

under subsection (a)(1). 11

(2) RESERVATION.—The amount set aside 12

under this subsection shall be proportionately re-13

served from the apportionment to each State partici-14

pating in the recreational trails program during that 15

fiscal year, after making any reallocation to partici-16

pating States, as described in section 133(h)(1)(B) 17

of title 23, United States Code. 18

SEC. 5. REPORTING. 19

(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW FINANCIAL MANAGE-20

MENT INFORMATION SYSTEM CODES.—The Adminis-21

trator shall establish financial management information 22

system codes for each of the following: 23

(1) Nonmotorized single use project. 24

(2) Nonmotorized diverse use project. 25

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7 

•HR 5797 IH

(3) Diverse use project including both motor-1

ized and nonmotorized uses. 2

(4) Motorized single use project. 3

(5) Motorized diverse use project. 4

(b) STATE REPORTS.— 5

(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-6

graph (2), not less frequently than annually, each 7

State that carries out projects under the recreational 8

trails program shall submit to the Administrator a 9

report describing the expenditures relating to those 10

projects, as listed— 11

(A) based on each code described in sub-12

section (a); and 13

(B) relating to projects for the State on 14

Federal land. 15

(2) EXEMPTION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 16

apply to a State that is described in section 17

206(d)(3)(B) of title 23, United States Code. 18

(c) ASSESSMENT.—Not less frequently than annually, 19

the Administrator shall— 20

(1) carry out an assessment of State expendi-21

tures on recreational trails projects under subsection 22

(b); and 23

(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 24

the results of the assessment. 25

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8 

•HR 5797 IH

SEC. 6. STP SET-ASIDE. 1

(a) RESERVATION OF FUNDS.—Section 133(h)(1) of 2

title 23, United States Code, is amended— 3

(1) in subparagraph (B)— 4

(A) in the matter preceding clause (i), by 5

striking ‘‘subparagraph (A)’’ and inserting 6

‘‘clause (i)’’; 7

(B) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘section 8

133(d)(2)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (d)(2)’’; 9

and 10

(C) in clause (ii), by striking the period at 11

the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 12

(2) in each of subparagraphs (A) and (B), by 13

redesignating clauses (i) and (ii) as subclauses (I) 14

and (II), respectively, and indenting the subclauses 15

appropriately; 16

(3) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) and 17

(B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and indent-18

ing the clauses appropriately; 19

(4) in the matter preceding clause (i) (as so re-20

designated), by striking ‘‘shall reserve an amount 21

such that—’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘shall re-22

serve— 23

‘‘(A) an amount such that—’’; and 24

(5) by adding at the end the following: 25

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9 

•HR 5797 IH

‘‘(B) for administrative, research, technical 1

assistance, and training expenses (including the 2

costs of entering into cooperative agreements 3

with other Federal departments or agencies, in-4

stitutions of higher education, or nonprofit or-5

ganizations to carry out such an activity) for 6

the recreational trails program under section 7

206, an amount of up to 1 percent of the 8

amount apportioned to carry out that program, 9

but not to exceed $1,500,000, which reservation 10

shall be made before making any apportionment 11

under paragraph (5) to a State.’’. 12

(b) AMOUNT REQUIRED TO BE OBLIGATED FOR 13

RECREATIONAL TRAILS.—Section 133(h)(5) of title 23, 14

United States Code, is amended— 15

(1) by striking ‘‘For each fiscal year’’ and in-16

serting the following: 17

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For each fiscal year’’; 18

(2) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) through 19

(C) as clauses (i) through (iii), respectively; 20

(3) by amending clause (iii), as so redesignated, 21

to read as follows: 22

‘‘(iii) obligate an amount of funds re-23

served under this section equal to the 24

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10 

•HR 5797 IH

amount calculated under subparagraph 1

(B);’’; and 2

(4) by adding at the end the following: 3

‘‘(B) CALCULATION OF STATE SHARE OF 4

RECREATIONAL TRAIL PROGRAM FUNDS.—For 5

each State, the required amount of funds to be 6

obligated by such State under subparagraph 7

(A)(iii) shall be calculated by adding— 8

‘‘(i) covered funds divided by the 9

number of States reserving amounts under 10

this subsection; and 11

‘‘(ii) covered funds proportioned to 12

such State to the degree that— 13

‘‘(I) non-highway recreational 14

fuel use in such State during the pre-15

ceding year; bears to 16

‘‘(II) non-highway recreational 17

fuel use in all States, as reflected in 18

the most recent nonhighway rec-19

reational fuel study required of the 20

Secretary under the RTP Full Fund-21

ing Act of 2020. 22

‘‘(C) COVERED FUNDS DEFINED.—In this 23

paragraph, the term ‘covered funds’ means— 24

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11 

•HR 5797 IH

‘‘(i) until the date on which the first 1

report is submitted under section 4 of the 2

RTP Full Funding Act of 2020, 3

$125,000,000; and 4

‘‘(ii) after the date on which the first 5

report is submitted under section 4 of the 6

RTP Full Funding Act of 2020, 50 per-7

cent of the best available estimate of the 8

total annual amount of nonhighway rec-9

reational fuel taxes transferred to the 10

Highway Trust Fund.’’. 11

Æ 

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