Sponsors
The bill expands and targets federal support for transportation demand management—broadening travel options, especially for smaller jurisdictions and rural areas, and reducing congestion and emissions—but does so by reallocating limited infrastructure funds and creating implementation and equity risks that could leave some large capital projects and vulnerable populations under-supported.
Rural residents (including low-income people and seniors) gain more travel options — carpool/vanpool, smart rural hubs, trip-planning/MaaS and real-time info — improving access to jobs, healthcare, and stores.
Commuters and households nationwide face lower travel times and reduced congestion, which can cut commuting costs and improve air quality by reducing vehicle miles traveled and emissions.
State, local, Tribal governments and transit agencies can use federal grant programs (e.g., CMAQ, SMART) to fund TDM programs (car/vanpooling, parking pricing, telecommuting support), enabling broader deployment of demand-management strategies.
Federal funds may be redirected toward TDM and the $20M set-aside, reducing funding available for large capital transit and highway projects and potentially impacting construction and transportation jobs.
Rural residents, people with disabilities, and seniors risk being underserved because reliance on carpool/vanpool and other TDM approaches may not meet needs for fixed-route transit or accessibility upgrades.
Expanding eligibility and removing caps increases competition for limited grants and tends to favor entities with grant-writing capacity, disadvantaging very small jurisdictions, nonprofits, and communities with less administrative capacity.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 27, 2026 by Lisa Blunt Rochester · Last progress January 27, 2026
Creates a statutory definition of transportation demand management (TDM), explicitly allows multiple federal transportation grant programs to fund TDM strategies, and establishes two $20,000,000 annual set-asides: one for rural TDM grants and one for small projects under the specified highway program. It lists eligible recipients and activities (planning, outreach, vanpooling/carpooling, incentives, traveler info, ITS, MaaS), and requires unused set-aside funds be reallocated to other grants under the same programs.