All federally funded projects, and regionally significant projects (regardless of funding), must be listed in an Federal Transportation Improvement Program (FTIP) per federal law.

The Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) are responsible for developing and maintaining the FTIP. In District 3, the MPOs are the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (includes Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba Counties, and portions of El Dorado and Placer counties); Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization (includes Tahoe Basin portion of El Dorado and Placer Counties); and the Butte County Association of Governments (includes Butte County only).

A project is not eligible to be programmed in the FTIP until it is programmed in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) or in the State Highway Operations and Protection Program (SHOPP). Other types of funding (Federal Demonstration, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ), Transportation Enhancement Activities (TEA), or Surface Transportation Program (STP)) must be officially approved before the projects can be included in the FTIP.

Project Managers are responsible for ensuring that their projects are listed in a current federally approved FTIP, and should work through one of the FTIP Coordinators whenever they need to program a project in the FTIP or for any FTIP-related issue.

Current information regarding Federal approval of FTIPs and FTIP amendments is available at: Caltrans Division of Programming.