Bill Summary
This legislation, also known as the "COMMUTE Act", requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish a pilot program within a year of its enactment. The purpose of this program is to develop and provide accessibility data sets to eligible entities, such as states, metropolitan planning organizations, and rural planning organizations. These data sets will measure the level of access to important destinations, such as jobs, health care facilities, and affordable housing, by multiple transportation modes. Eligible entities must apply to participate in the program and will be selected on a competitive basis. The Secretary will be responsible for developing or acquiring the data sets and making them available to local governments and researchers. A report on the program's results must be submitted to Congress within 120 days of its completion, and the program will be funded through administrative expenses of the Department of Transportation. The pilot program will last for 8 years before terminating.
Possible Impacts
1. Access to important destinations: The bill aims to improve transportation planning by measuring the level of access to important destinations such as jobs, health care facilities, child care services, educational and workforce training facilities, affordable housing, and food sources. This could potentially benefit people by making it easier for them to access these essential services and resources, especially for those who may not have reliable transportation options.
2. Competition for participation: The bill states that eligible entities will be selected to participate in the pilot program on a competitive basis. This could potentially create a barrier for some entities, as they may not have the resources or capabilities to compete with others and therefore miss out on the potential benefits of the program.
3. Open source methodology: The bill requires that the methodology used to calculate the measures for the data set be open source. This could potentially benefit people by ensuring transparency and accountability in the data collection process, as well as promoting collaboration and innovation in developing the data sets.
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 654 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 654
To require the Secretary of Transportation to carry out a pilot program
to develop and provide to States and transportation planning
organizations accessibility data sets, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 5, 2019
Ms. Baldwin (for herself and Ms. Ernst) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Transportation to carry out a pilot program
to develop and provide to States and transportation planning
organizations accessibility data sets, and for other purposes.
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 ``Connecting Opportunities through
Mobility Metrics and Unlocking Transportation Efficiencies Act'' or the
``COMMUTE Act''.
SEC. 2. ACCESSIBILITY DATA PILOT PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation (referred to in this
section as the ``Secretary'') shall carry out an accessibility data
pilot program (referred to in this section as the ``pilot program'').
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of the pilot program is to develop or
make available an accessibility data set for each eligible entity
selected to participate in the pilot program to improve transportation
planning of those eligible entities by measuring the level of access by
multiple transportation modes to important destinations, such as--
(1) jobs, including areas with a concentration of available
jobs;
(2) health care facilities;
(3) child care services;
(4) educational and workforce training facilities;
(5) affordable housing; and
(6) food sources.
(c) Eligible Entities.--An entity eligible to participate in the
pilot program is--
(1) a State (as defined in section 101(a) of title 23,
United States Code);
(2) a metropolitan planning organization; or
(3) a rural planning organization.
(d) Application.--To be eligible to participate in the pilot
program, an eligible entity shall submit to the Secretary an
application at such time, in such manner, and containing such
information as the Secretary may require.
(e) Selection.--The Secretary shall select eligible entities to
participate in the program on a competitive basis, including--
(1) 5 States;
(2) 10 metropolitan planning organizations, of which--
(A) 5 shall each serve an area with a population of
not more than 200,000 people; and
(B) 5 shall each serve an area with a population of
200,000 or more people; and
(3) 5 rural planning organizations.
(f) Duties.--For each eligible entity participating in the pilot
program, the Secretary shall--
(1) develop or acquire an accessibility data set described
in subsection (b); and
(2) submit the data set to the eligible entity.
(g) Methodology.--In calculating the measures for the data set
under the pilot program, the Secretary shall ensure that methodology is
open source.
(h) Availability.--The Secretary shall make an accessibility data
set under the pilot program available to--
(1) units of local government within the jurisdiction of
the eligible entity participating in the pilot program; and
(2) researchers.
(i) Report.--Not later than 120 days after the last date on which
the Secretary submits data sets to the eligible entity under subsection
(f), the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the results of
the program, including the feasibility of developing and providing
periodic accessibility data sets for all States, regions, and
localities.
(j) Funding.--The Secretary shall carry out the pilot program using
amounts made available to the Secretary for administrative expenses to
carry out programs under the authority of the Secretary.
(k) Sunset.--The pilot program shall terminate on the date that is
8 years after the date on which the pilot program is implemented.
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