Surface-Transportation Funding in a New Century: Assessing One Slice of the Federal Marble Cake

This article examines American federalism through the prism of the surface transportation program, one of the nation's largest grant-in-aid programs. No matter how pragmatic or intense the desire to express assessments in simple terms, federalism is a time-sensitive reflection of our collective experiential understanding. Facts, values, hypotheses, and concepts are derived from this collective understanding. The experience of the surface transportation program under ISTEA and TEA-21 illustrates the challenge of achieving a clear picture of federalism when radical changes occur. ISTEA and TEA-21 have significantly altered traditional intergovernmental relationships, particularly as the federal role in transportation appears to have become more ambiguous than at any time in the past 45 years. Thus, at the outset of the twenty-first century, the federal role in transportation is shifting, becoming far less focused. Other goals are emerging, leading the federal transportation role to become more of a means to an end than the central focal point. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.