06-28-2012: Congress agrees to a two-year reauthorization of federal transportation programs, including revised language impacting surface transportation projects that have supported public art, design, historic preservation, museums, and landscaping since 1991. Unfortunately, the new legislation removes public art as a specifically named eligible activity, casting uncertainty to its eligibility for federal funds. As a result of questions from Americans for the Arts and its members, the U.S. Department of Transportation drafted this official guidance clarifying ways federal funding can be used in the new law, MAP-21, especially in creative designs related to surface transportation. Many cities have successfully continued to incorporate art and design into both their local surface transportation and transit projects with support from their communities.