Sponsors (7)
The bill modernizes and can speed infrastructure planning and public engagement by incentivizing digital tools, but it risks raising upfront costs, excluding low‑tech communities, concentrating grant awards among better‑resourced jurisdictions, and creating data privacy/security concerns.
State and local governments can use interactive digital platforms and 3‑D models to clarify project impacts and speed NEPA reviews, potentially accelerating infrastructure delivery and reducing approval delays.
Local and state grant applicants that plan to adopt these technologies receive priority for major federal infrastructure grants, incentivizing modernization and increasing their chances of securing federal funding.
Community members in urban and rural areas gain clearer, interactive visualizations of environmental impacts, improving public engagement, understanding, and the ability to give informed input on projects.
Rural communities and lower‑resource urban neighborhoods lacking broadband or technical literacy may be excluded from meaningful participation, reducing equitable public access and input.
Under-resourced local governments and jurisdictions may be disadvantaged in grant competitions because priority is given to applicants using advanced digital tools, concentrating federal funding among better‑resourced areas.
Local and state governments and ultimately taxpayers may incur upfront costs to adopt cloud platforms and high‑fidelity 3‑D models, increasing project budgets or shifting costs to local budgets.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced May 29, 2025 by Dustin Johnson · Last progress May 29, 2025
Requires the Department of Transportation to promote and demonstrate the use of interactive digital/cloud platforms and high-fidelity 3‑D models (including "digital twins") for NEPA environmental reviews and public engagement on certain federally funded highway projects. The Secretary must publish technology-neutral best-practice guidance within 90 days, select at least 10 demonstration projects that received designated federal grants (giving priority to applicants planning to use these tools), report on efficacy and metrics to relevant committees within 180 days, and publish at least five example NEPA documents produced with these platforms within one year. The measure preserves existing State authorities under the surface transportation project delivery program.