This month, ELR is publishing three sets of materials of interest to ELR users concerned with federal transportation programs.

The first is a definitive article by Ronald C. Peterson and Robert M. Kennan Jr., entitled "The Federal-Aid Highway Program: Administrative Procedures and Judicial Interpretation" (2 ELR 50001), which describes and analyzes the various requirements that the Federal Highway Administration imposes upon the states before reimbursing them for some of the costs of constructing highways on the Interstate, primary, and urban systems. Although the federal-aid highway program is the nation's largest public works program, the complexity of its administration—in part due to the obscurity of the governing procedures—often has frustrated those who seek to balance the program's goals against environmental and social values. In their article, Kennan and Peterson explain FHwA's procedures for approving highways and explore how these procedures can prejudice the process against effective consideration of environmental and social values. As examples of how their analysis can affect the consideration of these values in the administration of the program, they consider two questions that have repeatedly troubled the courts. Which ongoing highway undertakings are subject to recently enacted social and environmental legislation? When is a highway undertaking a federal-aid highway for the purposes of social and environmental legislation? Peterson and Kennan clarify the conflicting policies inherent in federal-aid highway legislation and provide invaluable assistance to attorneys and administrators who participate in the resolution of these conflicts.