Assistance program
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ)
$446.7 Million committed in FY2026–FY2026
- Agency
- Federal Highway Administration, Transportation, Department of
- Assistance
- Not Applicable
- CFDA number
- 20.268
- What it does
- Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program funds are limited to projects and programs that reduce transportation related emissions air quality non-attainment and maintenance areas for ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter, though provision is made for States without air quality issues. This Assistance Listing 20.268 created in August 2025 was included in the previous ALN 20.205, please refer to former ALN 20.205 for FY24 and FY25 financial obligations. The new Assistance Listing 20.268 will be utilized by DOT at the start of FY 2026.
- Who benefits
- Not Applicable
- Who applies
- Apportionment of Funds As under the FAST Act, the IIJA directs FHWA to apportion funding as a lump sum for each State then divide that total among apportioned programs. Each State’s CMAQ apportionment is calculated based on a ratio specified in law. [23 U.S.C. 104(b)(4)] (See “Apportionment†fact sheet for a description of this calculation) Set-asides 2% for State Planning and Research (SPR). [23 U.S.C. 505] For a State that has a nonattainment or maintenance area for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the BIL requires that an amount equal to 25% of the amount of the State’s CMAQ apportionment attributable to the weighted population of such areas in the State must be used for projects targeting PM2.5 reductions in those PM2.5 nonattainment and maintenance areas, including for diesel replacements (in addition to retrofits), and the BIL requires States to prioritize benefits to disadvantaged communities or low-income populations living in or adjacent to such area, to the extent practicable. [§ 11115(5); 23 U.S.C. 149(k)(1)(A) and (B)] States with low population density are not subject to this set-aside under certain conditions. [23 U.S.C. 149(k)]
- Authorized by
- Public Law 102-240
- Public Law 105-178
- 23 U.S.C. § 149
- Public Law 117-58
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments