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Metropolitan Planning Enhancement Act
To amend titles 23 and 49, United States Code, to improve public understanding of how transportation investments are made by public agencies through establishing greater transparency and accountability processes.
Summary
This bill amends federal transportation planning laws to increase transparency and accountability in how transportation projects are selected for funding. It requires that transportation projects be chosen through public processes using performance-based criteria and that projects be publicly ranked by performance. When lower-performing projects are selected for funding ahead of higher-performing ones, agencies must publicly explain the reasons, such as geographic balance or serving economically distressed areas. These transparency requirements apply to both metropolitan and statewide transportation planning.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Mark Desaulnier’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- TOWNSEND PUBLIC AFFAIRS $6,600
- SIGNATURE HOMES $6,600
- MACKENZIE CAPITAL $6,600
- ACTIVEHOURS INC. $6,000
- NULL $5,000
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Mark Desaulnier → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Oct 8, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. · house
- Oct 8, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 8, 2025
Mr. DeSaulnier introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend titles 23 and 49, United States Code, to improve public understanding of how transportation investments are made by public agencies through establishing greater transparency and accountability processes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Metropolitan Planning Enhancement Act”.
SEC. 2. METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING.
(a) Development of Transportation Plan.—Section 134(i) of title 23, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (7) and (8) as paragraphs
(8) and (9); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (6) the following:
“(7) Project selection transparency and accountability.— Projects included in the adopted transportation plan shall be selected through a publicly available transparent process that includes use of criteria that directly support factors in subsection (h), the national transportation goals under section 150(b), and applicable State transportation goals. The criteria shall be used to publicly categorize the highest performing projects.”.
(b) Metropolitan Tip.—Section 134(j)(2)(A) of title 23, United States Code is amended by adding after the period at the end the following: “Projects included in the priority list shall come from the highest performing category of projects identified in the transportation plan under subsection (i)(7). If a lower-categorized project is included in the priority project list, a public description shall be included to explain why the lower-categorized project is included before a higher-categorized project, including geographic balance and projects in economically distressed areas.”.
SEC. 3. STATEWIDE AND NONMETROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING.
(a) Long-Range Statewide Transportation Plan.—Section 135(f) of title 23, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraph (9) as paragraph (10); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (8) the following:
“(9) Project selection transparency and accountability.— Projects included in the adopted long-range statewide transportation plan shall be selected through a publicly available transparent process that includes use of criteria that directly support factors in subsection (d), the national transportation goals under section 150(b), and applicable State transportation goals. The criteria shall be used to publicly categorize the highest performing projects.”.
(b) Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan.—Section 135(g)(5)(A) of title 23, United States Code is amended by adding after the period at the end the following: “Projects included in the transportation improvement program shall come from the highest performing category of projects identified in the transportation plan under subsection (f)(9). If a lower-categorized project is included in the priority project list, a public description shall be included to explain why the lower-categorized project is included before a higher-categorized project, including geographic balance and projects in economically distressed areas.”.
SEC. 4. METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING.
(a) Development of Transportation Plan.—Section 5303(i) of chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (7) and (8) as paragraphs
(8) and (9); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (6) the following:
“(7) Project selection transparency and accountability.— Projects included in the adopted transportation plan shall be selected through a publicly available transparent process that includes use of criteria that directly support factors in subsection (h), the national transportation goals under section 150(b), and applicable State transportation goals. The criteria shall be used to publicly categorize the highest performing projects.”.
(b) Metropolitan Tip.—Section 5303(j)(2)(A) of chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code is amended by adding after the period at the end the following: “Projects included in the priority list shall come from the highest performing category of projects identified in the transportation plan under subsection (i)(7). If a lower-categorized project is included in the priority project list, a public description shall be included to explain why the lower-categorized project is included before a higher-categorized project, including geographic balance and projects in economically distressed areas.”.
SEC. 5. STATEWIDE AND NONMETROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING.
(a) Long-Range Statewide Transportation Plan.—Section 5304(f) of chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating paragraph (9) as paragraph (10); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (8) the following:
“(9) Project selection transparency and accountability.— Projects included in the adopted long-range statewide transportation plan shall be selected through a publicly available transparent process that includes use of criteria that directly support factors in subsection (d), the national transportation goals under section 150(b), and applicable State transportation goals. The criteria shall be used to publicly categorize the highest performing projects.”.
(b) Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan.—Section 5304(g)(5)(A) of chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding after the period at the end the following: “Projects included in the statewide transportation improvement program shall come from the highest performing category of projects identified in the transportation plan under subsection (f)(9). If a lower-categorized project is included in the priority project list, a public description shall be included to explain why the lower- categorized project is included before a higher-categorized project, including geographic balance and projects in economically distresses areas.”. <all>
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