Make Transportation Authorities Accountable and Transparent Act

Bill Summary

H.R. 171, the Make Transportation Authorities Accountable and Transparent Act, directs the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG) to audit how the nation’s five largest public transit agencies used federal funds over the five fiscal years preceding the bill’s enactment. The focus is on both regular transit grants administered under Chapter 53 of Title 49 of the U.S. Code and the extraordinary pandemic-era relief packages: the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020, the CARES Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSA), and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP). The bill is bipartisan, introduced by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).

The core requirement is straightforward: the DOT Inspector General must compile, for each of the specified transit agencies, a ledger of how much money each received under each of the listed laws and a description of how those funds were spent. The OIG must then report the results to Congress within 180 days of enactment. While the bill does not explicitly mandate public release, OIG reports are commonly made public, and Congress could use the report in hearings, future appropriations debates, or follow-on legislation.

“Specified transit agency” is defined narrowly as the five entities with the highest number of unlinked passenger trips in calendar year 2019, as reported to the National Transit Database (NTD), provided they received federal funds under the listed laws. “Unlinked passenger trips” is a standard transit industry metric that counts each boarding separately; it ensures the bill targets the largest systems by ridership, typically including agencies such as New York’s MTA and other major metropolitan operators. Using 2019 as the baseline deliberately references pre-pandemic travel patterns to avoid ridership distortions caused by COVID-19 shutdowns and remote work.

The audit scope spans five fiscal years ending before enactment, which—if enacted early in 2025—would cover FY2020 through FY2024. That window captures the full life cycle of pandemic relief flowing to transit agencies, from the initial infusion to later tranches intended to stabilize operations, prevent layoffs, maintain essential service for front-line and low-income riders, and sustain capital programs. It also captures routine Federal Transit Administration (FTA) formula and discretionary grants under Chapter 53, allowing the IG to present a comprehensive picture of federal support and spending choices during a period of historic disruption.

Importantly, the bill’s audit mandate is descriptive rather than evaluative. It requires the OIG to tally funds received and explain how they were spent, but it does not require a judgment on cost-effectiveness, service outcomes, equity impacts, or ridership recovery. Nor does it prescribe corrective actions, impose penalties, or authorize clawbacks. However, if the IG uncovers potential misuse or noncompliance with federal grant rules, existing law already allows the FTA or other agencies to pursue recovery or enforcement actions. The audit could thus serve as a springboard for additional oversight or legislative conditions tied to future funding.

The choice to limit the audit to the five largest systems concentrates oversight where the bulk of federal dollars and riders are, thereby reducing the administrative burden on smaller agencies and focusing the OIG’s limited resources. At the same time, this choice will leave out many mid-sized and smaller systems that also received significant COVID-era aid, potentially missing issues elsewhere. The 180-day deadline aims to deliver timely findings that can inform the current appropriations cycle, but given the size and complexity of major agencies’ finances, it may compress the OIG’s ability to conduct deeper, evaluative work beyond the bill’s minimal requirements.

Practically, the DOT OIG will coordinate closely with the FTA and the targeted agencies to gather grant award data, drawdowns, and expenditure categories. Expect detailed breakdowns by statute (e.g., CARES vs. CRRSA vs. ARP vs. Chapter 53), program (formula vs. discretionary), and broad use (operations, payroll, safety and cleaning, capital maintenance, debt service where allowed, etc.). Congress can use the resulting report to assess whether pandemic relief and standard grants were used as intended, to gauge the magnitude of ongoing structural operating deficits at large systems, and to shape policy discussions around future federal support, performance conditions, or governance reforms for major metropolitan transit networks.

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