Additional Consideration in Senate State and Local Government Committee, Potential Inclusion in House and Senate Omnibus
The Highway Justice Act advanced when the Senate Transportation Committee heard the bill on Wednesday, April 2.
This legislation will transform Minnesota’s transportation decisions by prioritizing community impact. It would require MnDOT to give affected communities more input on major highway projects, enhance environmental justice protections, and create flexibility to improve transit and non-motorized infrastructure without tax increases.
Chief author Senator Omar Fateh presented SF 817 alongside Our Streets, community members, local officials, and transportation advocates.
MnDOT’s Opposition to Reform
Transportation Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger expressed concerns about increased environmental justice protections and meaningful community involvement in highway planning.
The agency claimed that additional community input or environmental considerations before projects enter the State Transportation Improvement Plan would bias environmental reviews and jeopardize federal funding. However, the bill mirrors the 2024 Vehicle Miles Traveled legislation, strengthening federal processes by adding state-level community protections without compromising reviews.
MnDOT also took a “death by fiscal note” strategy to overstate the bill’s costs to discourage lawmakers from facing budget constraints. For example, their fiscal note claimed 30-50 projects annually would need cumulative impact assessments for environmental justice communities, costing over $80 million by 2029. Yet their 2024 fiscal note stated only four projects per year would require such analysis, costing about $11 million over three years.
Our transportation dollars should address Minnesota’s biggest challenges, including environmental justice and meaningful local input on century-shaping infrastructure projects, so we look forward to continuing the push for these policies.
Next Steps
The Senate Transportation Committee members voted to refer the bill out of committee to the Senate State and Local Government Committee for additional consideration. Legislators in the House and Senate are working on omnibus bills, essentially large transportation finance and policy bills packaged together.
Progress in the Senate
Our Streets worked with committee leadership and legislators to include:
- Clarifying highway purpose to include all modes of transportation, facilitating investments in bike, pedestrian, and transit investments along trunk highways
- Bylaws, Public Meeting Requirements, and various rights and powers for members of the I-94, Highway 252, and Olson Memorial Highway projects
- Process changes to MnDOT’s project development process so that important project documents will no longer be created to bias highways but consider broader transportation and community needs
- Multi-disciplinary project development requirements for project staff to have multimodal expertise and relevant social science qualifications through the project development process across social science disciplines, not just traffic engineers
Progress in the House
Our Streets worked with committee leadership and legislators to include:
- Reporting requirements for MnDOT to fully and transparently share information about major trunk highway projects
- Establishing a fiscal transparency dashboard to make MnDOT report on all incoming funding and be accountable for justifying how their transportation spending meets transportation goals from the program to the project level
Our Streets continues to advocate for full implementation of MnDOT’s climate law, aiming to mitigate the climate impacts of highways by reducing emissions and Vehicle Miles Traveled. House Republicans have continued work to undermine, delay, or repeal this important policy.
Take Action
Let decision-makers know you’d like to see this legislation pass, reducing pollution, increasing opportunity for more transit funding, and improving community input on infrastructure.