1. Road Maintenance Subcommittee
Tribal Interior Budget Council
Report Out
November 8, 2016

2. Follow up to Rapid City TIBC Meeting: 4 Approved Recommendations
I -Elevate Road Maintenance to Budget Activity Status
II -Road maintenance emergency fund pool
III -Reporting cost for each Maintenance Activity
IV -Deferred Maintenance Report
In the last meeting in Rapid City, the subcommittee made 4 recommendations to the council which were approved. As a follow up, the subcommittee provides this update. Two of the recommendation were directed to the administration as a whole and two were directed to the program (BIA road maintenance).

3. I - Elevate Road Maintenance to Budget Activity Status
Programs or sub-activities within the Indian Affairs budget structure are grouped together by their similarities, mission and relationship to each other
These groups are referred to as a Budget Activity
There are eight (8) budget activities under Operation of Indian Programs:
Road Maintenance is currently a sub-activity under the Tribal Government activity
There is no budget activity to represent roads and transportation
RECOMMENDATION: Create a separate budget activity for road maintenance within Operation of Indian Programs to give it greater significance.
Recommendation I was to create a separate budget activity for road maintenance with OIP to give it greater significance and visibility within the DOI and OMB budget process. The concern is that where it is located within “Tribal Government”, it gets lost and really has no relationship to this category. Making it it’s own category will bring immediate attention on the level of other budget activities.

4. Recommendation I: Update
The subcommittee met with the BIA Budget office on the process of accomplishing this task
It is not probable for this to occur because the change of budget categories is not the only way to increase exposure and acknowledgement of a program
As a budget category, there would have to be subcategories or activities under this level; this would break out activities or functions such as emergency maintenance, snow/ice removal, and bridge maintenance among others. This would have the effect of limiting use of funding to the established budget amounts of each subcategory (limiting to tribes)
An alternative that may be explored is to consider an infrastructure budget category to include Road Maintenance to increase visibility
There are other avenues to increase visibility, we are seeing this right now with the renewed priorities of TIBC, the Hill and the Department of the Interior
The subcommittee met with the BIA Budget staff on the recommendation. A change of budget cateogories is not likely because it involves input and approval that follow processes more suited for larger categories of related subcategories and not a single program source. As an example, the category would have to have other subcategories which would be the specific activities like emergency maintenance, snow and ice removal, etc. But those would then have to be separate funding lines and managed based on the amounts within those subcategories. An alternative may be to consider a budget category that includes other infrastructure activities which could then include road maintenance. More discussion with budget and others is necessary. Increased visibility comes in other ways such as the current emphasis and renewed efforts of tribes.

5. II - Emergency Maintenance Funds Pool
TPA Road Maintenance funds include all road maintenance activities including snow removal. As much as upwards of 90% of these funds can be expended during the winter, leaving little for other road maintenance for remainder of the year.
Tribes regularly use their 25% of the Tribal Transportation Program to supplement the BIA road maintenance program for the remainder of the year.
Some emergency/disaster events do not always meet the disaster cost threshold or matching funds to qualify for federal emergency programs at FEMA and FHWA ERFO.
RECOMMENDATION: Create a set aside pool for these types of emergencies in order to preserve TTP for its intended purpose.
Emergency maintenance occurs annually as result of climatic changes and most of this managed within the existing program funding and functions. There are those occasions when extreme events result in exhausted budgets and emergency measures (use of other funds, closures, disaster declarations, etc.). Tribes inevitably use other eligible funding which helps but limits their ability to do construction or reconstruction. Although there are other programs for funding specifically emergencies and disasters, they have specific criteria such as threshold limits, and matching funds, and are reimbursement based. They are available and do address the major events, but the ability to address those occasions when localized and immediate needs to bridge the gap is not available is a concern.

6. Recommendation II: Update
Available RM funds are established through Appropriations and based on Tribal Priority Allocations decisions at DOI/BIA.
If an amount is established exclusively for emergency maintenance it would need to come off the top of RM budget
Tribes generally do not establish their own emergency/disaster fund from this account.
BIA has an amount outside the formula shares that it makes available annually for emergency/disaster maintenance, but is generally exhausted each year.
It is recommended that this level of funding continue to be used for this purpose (the amount is approximately $220 K)
A criteria needs to be established for application/request
Recommendation II is establishing a emergency maintenance pool that can be used ro emergency/disaster maintenance. This is not meant for improvement or construction but for maintenance. The BIA does currently hold back an amount about $200 K that is uses for these activities, if it is not utilized it is rolled into tribal allocations after two years. It is not a lot of funding but it does address emergencies and allows some flexibility of use. If an amount greater than this is needed, eligible programs are the Tribal Transportation Program, FEMA disaster funds, and emergency relief from the FHWA.

7. III-Report Costs for Each Maintenance Activity
A process of data reporting from the local tribal/agency level programs on actions and functions would give added credibility to budget requests
The data reporting should include costs for each maintenance activity
RECOMMENDATION: Develop a standard data gathering system and require all tribes and agencies who receive road maintenance funding must report on a routine basis.
The subcommittee recommendation is simple to develop a data reporting process that will share specific performance data and need by location, tribe, surface type, activity. This would be beyond the two national measures reported by the BIA.

8. UPDATE: Report Maintenance Cost by Activity (at BIA and Tribal level)
Data reporting must be completely voluntary
Data tools could be made available to tribes to track this information from the BIA or could be possible using recommended data tools from tribes and current industry systems.
A consistent set of data would be gathered and reported to DOI/BIA for use by TIBC, OMB and USDOT. All tribes could participate, with emphasis on the 60 tribes that have 85+% of BIA roads/bridges
Recommendations on moving this forward will require that data reporting must be voluntary. PL does not require tribes to report this data unless it is negotiated into the agreement. Giving data tools to tribes may help to begin tracking their activities. Some tribes already have system that they are using and there are efforts to gather some basis of data elements. In addition to data tools, surveys of tribal transportation programs may be helpful in supplementing data and information. This needs to be coordinated with the data management subcommittee. The bottom line is that it needs to be consistently identified and gathered and reported.

9. UPDATE: Report Maintenance Cost by Activity (at BIA and Tribal level) (cont.)
Data reporting should include, but not limited to, a specific set of data that could include:
Miles of BIA roads (and Tribal) maintained
By surface type, maintenance activity (blading of earth and gravel roads, paved road repairs, bridge maintenance and repairs), and hours of work on maintenance activities (mowing, snow/ice removal, bridge and administration)
Fuel Consumption/Reporting, Costs
Equipment Maintenance/ Repairs/Needs
Emergency Maintenance Costs
Total Costs of each activity
This data would especially pinpoint individual emergency and snow removal activity costs.
As an example, these are some data elements that could be gathered and reported. This is not an all inclusive list. The next step in working with the subcommittee members is to consider methods of data gathering. Tribal input is necessary and this can come through a survey of tribes performing work and consider their systems and methods.

10. IV-Deferred Maintenance Report
The annual deferred maintenance report could be augmented to require tribes/agencies to report similar performance and deferred maintenance data
Currently the deferred maintenance reference in the green book is a short sentence highlighting 2 high level indices on cost of total deferred maintenance and condition of the BIA systems.
Set higher percentage goals of acceptable conditions (road miles and bridges) based on the Service Level Index in the Program Performance (GPRA)
RECOMMENDATION: Include the Deferred Maintenance Assessment Data Summary in the President’s Budget Request (green book)
This recommendation looks to augment the current available national publications on tribal program budgets with additional information on deferred maintenance and level of service (condition) beyond the two high level indices currently reported by the BIA. The annual green book should include this information to show specific data on the performance and need on Region and tribe/agency level.

11. UPDATE: Deferred Maintenance Report
In meeting with BIA budget staff, it is permissible to include more additional data on deferred maintenance by BIA Region that shows the diversity of transportation maintenance needs.
It is recommended to include data that reflects the percentage of roads by surface type and corresponding deferred maintenance and condition of roads also by surface type.
Appropriately this information can include success stories of program performance.
BIA budget staff support the ability to include useful data such as described in this recommendation. This information can be a “marketing tool” .