Congressman DeSaulnier Authors Bill to Improve Performance and Accountability of Regional Planning Institutions

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) announced the introduction of the Metropolitan Planning Enhancement Act (H.R. 6493) to help improve the performance and accountability of our metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), the main institutions for regional planning. H.R. 6493 would require regional transportation plans to include project descriptions and go through a transparent selection process that includes criteria, established by states, supporting regional, state, and national goals.

"Requiring that projects be assessed with objective criteria removes politics from the project selection process, and ensures that limited transportation resources are invested in projects that provide the highest return on investment for taxpayers," said Congressman DeSaulnier.

The bill would require projects in the Transportation Improvement Program to include a project description and be scored against the other projects in the region or state.

"This legislation will greatly expand transparency of the current project selection process being used by many state DOTs and MPOs, and help rebuild public trust by ensuring investments go towards projects that provide the best outcome and achieve national program goals. We cannot continue to allow limited and valuable transportation funds to be directed towards bad investments," DeSaulnier continued.

As a former Chair of the transportation committees of the California State Legislature and a former member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's MPO, DeSaulnier is familiar with the difficulty of coordinating across the complex Bay Area, with nine counties and more than 20 transportation agencies.

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