The funding agreement will set an annual payment schedule and be the federal government’s multiyear “contractual obligation,” according to the FTA’s website. Congress must appropriate the money annually, but state and federal officials have said Congress routinely abides by such agreements. State officials have said they would grant contractors full “notice to proceed,” or permission to start major construction, soon after the state signs the federal funding agreement. The state’s reaching of such an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration was considered more a matter of when than if. Congress has already appropriated about $203 million to the project, and the Obama administration requested $125 million for the Purple Line in its proposed fiscal 2017 budget.

Source: Washington Post July 28, 2016 21:27 UTC