State DOTs required to justify transportation projects under Maryland senator's bill

Bloomberg News

State transportation departments would be required to explain and justify transportation projects that cost over $10 million under a bill introduced this week by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md.

The Transportation Project Accountability Act of 2026 mandates states to publish online a list of transportation projects with details that justify the projects with criteria around safety, congestion reduction, and system performance. The list should score each project based on the extent to which it contributes to "performance measures and targets" described in the state's long-range transportation bill and include a "brief explanation of why the project was selected and its geographic location."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., co-sponsored the bill. Klobuchar sits on the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Alsobrooks is on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Both panels have significant input into surface transportation bills. Congress is set to begin the task of crafting the transportation reauthorization in the next few months. The legislation begins in the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

Many statewide transportation improvement programs list projects "without clear explanations of why they were chosen, how they advance safety, system reliability, or congestion reduction goals, or whether they ultimately achieved intended benefits," Alsobrook's office said in a press release announcing the bill. "This lack of standardized and public reporting limits stakeholder oversight, weakens long-term planning, and can lead to misaligned investments."

"We need more transparency in how we make critical investments in transportation and how they advance our shared goals, including making our communities safer, reducing congestion, and ensuring transportation is reliable," Alsobrooks said in a statement. "My Transportation Project Accountability Act of 2026 strengthens public trust and gives everyday Americans the opportunity to know exactly how we are investing in their communities, and whether those investments are delivering real results."

The current system for state DOT accountability, passed in 2012 as part of the MAP-21 transportation bill, was meant to hold DOTs more accountable in exchange for more flexibility in spending money, said Transportation of America in a June blog. "Nearly a decade into the implementation of this system, it's devolved into a box-checking exercise that provides neither greater transparency nor accountability for accomplishing anything tangible," said the group, which supports Alsobrook's bill.

"We need to introduce transparency into the process and hold the largest recipients of federal funding accountable for producing the benefits they promise," said Steve Davis, Transportation for America's interim director in a statement. "The Transportation Project Accountability Act would mark a much-needed and overdue first step toward building a transportation program that is truly accountable to everyday Americans,"

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which represents state DOTs, declined to comment. The Maryland Department of Transportation, however, said it supports its home senator's bill.

"Providing greater transparency and accountability in transportation spending decisions ensures that data drives outcomes that can improve safety, support reliable transportation infrastructure and economic mobility in capital programs," said Maryland Department of Transportation Acting Secretary Kathryn Thomson.