Federal Certification

Every four years, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) must jointly certify the metropolitan planning process (the Federal Certification Review process) in designated Transportation Management Areas.

The SCAG region is such a designated area, and the FHWA and FTA most recently conducted this review with SCAG in April 2022.

View the certification final report.

The 2022 Review found that the metropolitan transportation planning process in the SCAG region meets federal planning requirements except for a single corrective action related to the selection of projects to be funded with Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program and Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) Program dollars. 

SCAG addressed the corrective action by developing and finalizing a Compliance Action Plan for submission to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the federal agencies. The Compliance Action Plan was approved by SCAG’s Regional Council on Feb. 7, 2023 and subsequently by Caltrans and the federal agencies on March 17, 2023.  

SCAG continues to demonstrate compliance through the SCAG Regional Council adoption of the STBG/CMAQ Program Guidelines on June 1, 2023, and anticipated use of the program guidelines for subsequent project selection.