HR5711-119

What This Bill Does

The Metropolitan Planning Enhancement Act adds project-selection transparency rules to federal highway and transit planning statutes. For metropolitan transportation plans under title 23 and title 49, projects in the adopted plan must be selected through a publicly available process using criteria tied to statutory planning factors, national transportation goals, and applicable state goals. The criteria must publicly categorize the highest-performing projects, and priority lists must generally come from that highest-performing category. If a lower-categorized project is included before a higher-categorized project, planners must provide a public description explaining why, including geographic balance and projects in economically distressed areas. Parallel requirements are added for statewide and nonmetropolitan long-range transportation plans and transportation improvement programs under both highway and transit planning authorities.

Who Benefits and How

Residents reviewing transportation plans benefit from public project-ranking criteria and explanations for lower-ranked selections. Communities in economically distressed areas benefit because planners may justify lower-categorized projects based on economic distress and geographic balance. Transportation advocacy organizations benefit from clearer data to challenge or support project prioritization decisions. High-performing project sponsors benefit when priority lists must generally draw from the highest-performing project category.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Metropolitan planning organizations must publish criteria, categorize projects, and explain deviations in adopted plans and priority lists. State transportation departments must apply similar transparent criteria in statewide and nonmetropolitan planning and improvement programs. Transit planning agencies must update title 49 planning processes for metropolitan and statewide transit project selection. Transportation project sponsors with lower-ranked projects may need to justify selection through public explanations.

Key Provisions

• Requires public project-selection criteria for metropolitan transportation plans under title 23.
• Requires priority lists to draw from highest-performing project categories or explain lower-categorized selections.
• Requires the same transparency approach for statewide and nonmetropolitan highway planning.
• Requires parallel project-selection transparency in title 49 transit metropolitan and statewide planning.
• Provides explanation factors including geographic balance and economically distressed areas.