DOT pilots digital tools to speed highway reviews—but won't strengthen environmental protections
H.R. 3634 — Interactive Federal Review Act · Filed by Dusty Johnson (R-SD) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced May 29, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the Department of Transportation to encourage and pilot the use of digital platforms and 3D digital models (called 'digital twins') to speed up environmental reviews for federally funded highway projects. The Secretary must publish guidance within 90 days, select at least 10 pilot projects, and report back within 180 days on whether these tools make the review process faster and improve public engagement—without changing the underlying environmental review requirements themselves.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to pilot digital tools for environmental review processes on federally funded highway projects. It is not a deregulation measure—NEPA requirements remain intact—but rather a technology-adoption and process-improvement initiative.
What the text implies
- The bill encourages but does not mandate digital platforms, leaving implementation discretionary. This may create a two-tier system where well-resourced projects adopt advanced tools while smaller projects continue traditional reviews, potentially widening disparities in project visibility and public engagement.
- Faster environmental reviews, even with better visualization, could reduce the time available for meaningful public comment if agencies interpret 'expedited' as a directive to compress timelines rather than improve efficiency within existing windows.
- The bill's focus on 'interactive' platforms and 'community engagement' is aspirational but not enforceable—there is no requirement that digital tools actually increase public participation or that agency decisions be influenced by digital-era feedback.
- Digital twins and cloud platforms require ongoing vendor relationships and technical expertise. States and project sponsors may become dependent on proprietary software ecosystems, creating long-term costs and potential lock-in to specific technology providers.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill may improve public understanding of highway projects through better visualization tools and could streamline reviews, benefiting citizens by reducing project delays. However, the bill does not mandate stronger environmental protections or public participation rights—it only encourages digital tools—and there is a risk that faster reviews could reduce meaningful public input if implementation prioritizes speed over substantive engagement.
Who stands to gain
- software and cloud platform vendors (infrastructure visualization and digital twin technology provid
- consulting firms specializing in environmental review and digital infrastructure modeling
- highway construction and engineering firms (through faster project approvals)
Named in the bill
Department of Transportation (DOT), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program, Mega grant program, Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program, Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Section 327 surface transportation project delivery program
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- May 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 29, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $705,794 in lobbying spend. A filing names 61 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Dusty Johnson, the sponsor, reported $325,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Society of Civil Engineers — $489,417 on 2 filings
- Associated General Contractors of America — $216,377 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,431 characters) on Aug 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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