TEA21 Provisions
Under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA21), the Boat Safety Account continues to be authorized up to $70 million per year in motorboat fuel taxes, subject to appropriation by Congress, for grants to assist participating States with funding for their RBS programs. In addition to the discretionary funds available through the Boat Safety Account, the Clean Vessel Act of 1992, also reauthorized by TEA21, provides mandatory funding for the State RBS grant program from the Sport Fish Restoration Account (funds are transferred by the Fish and Wildlife Service to the Coast Guard).

Under TEA21, the States are guaranteed $59 million as a minimum level of annual funding, and may receive as much as $71.6 million. In addition, the Coast Guard is provided $5 million per year of mandatory funding to be used to increase its own RBS Program coordination efforts.

Participation Requirements
To be eligible to participate in the grant program, a State recreational boating safety program must include:

• a vessel numbering system;
• a cooperative boating safety assistance program with the Coast Guard;
• sufficient patrol and other activity to ensure adequate enforcement of applicable State boating safety laws and regulations;
• a State boating safety education program that includes the dissemination of information concerning the hazards of operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol or drugs; and
• a marine casualty reporting system. All States and U.S. Territories participate in the RBS grant program. Alaska received conditional approval of its program in 1999 pending enactment of additional legislation.

• one-third allocated equally among participating States;
• one-third allocated in the same ratio as the number of vessels numbered in the State bears to the number of vessels numbered in all participating States; and
• one-third allocated in the same ratio as the amount of the State's prior-year expenditures for boating safety bears to the total prior-year expenditures for boating safety of all participating States.

Allowable uses of the RBS Program funds include a wide spectrum of activities that fall into six broad categories - program administration, law enforcement and search and rescue capability, boater education, vessel numbering and titling systems, aids to navigation, and public boating access sites.

Allowable Uses
Federal funds provided for a State's boating safety program may be used for any of the following:

• Providing facilities, equipment, and supplies for boating safety education and law enforcement, including purchase, operation, maintenance, and repair.
• Training personnel in skills related to boating safety and to the enforcement of boating safety laws and regulations.
• Providing public boating safety education, including educational programs and lectures, to the boating community and the public school system.
• Acquiring, constructing, or repairing public access sites used primarily by recreational boaters.
• Conducting boating safety inspections and marine casualty investigations.
• Establishing and maintaining emergency or search and rescue facilities, and providing emergency or search and rescue assistance.
• Establishing and maintaining waterway markers and other appropriate aids to navigation.
• Providing State recreational vessel numbering and titling programs.

The Recreational Boating Safety (RBS) State Grant Program administered by the Coast Guard provides funding to assist the states* and U.S. Territories with programs to protect the estimated 78 million Americans who enjoy recreational boating each year. Information about the background of the program is in History.
 * "State" as defined in statute includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands.