[1] It was enacted by the 112th United States Congress as an amendment of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), a transportation bill that included many other provisions.

[2] The act was in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred on April 20, 2010, which caused significant environmental, ecological, and economic damage to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico that was owned by Transocean and drilling for British Petroleum (BP) exploded, killing 11 workers and injuring 16.

In September 2014, a U.S. district judge issued a ruling that BP was mostly responsible for the spill, which could result in as much as $18 billion in additional penalties under the Clean Water Act.

[6] The eighty percent that will go to the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund will be allocated as follows:[7] On July 21, 2011, Senators Mary Landrieu (D-La.)