Federal regulations require the Governor or his designee to approve the STIP. In November 2015, the Governor delegated his signature authority on necessary transportation planning and programming related documents to the TxDOT Executive Director. The initial Draft STIP is adopted by the Texas Transportation Commission and certified by the Executive Director in August and sent to FHWA/FTA for approval. This process happens biennially in odd-numbered years (the four years covered by the STIP would begin with an odd numbered year). The FHWA/FTA approval letter is sent to TPP and the TxDOT Finance Division (FIN). In addition, TPP sends the letter to all MPOs and districts and post it online. The approval letter is also uploaded into eSTIP portal and the approval date for the projects uploaded into TxDOT CONNECT.

While the initial STIP requires the Commission’s approval and adoption, revisions only require approval by the Executive Director prior to sending forward to FHWA / FTA for federal approval.