23 U.S.C. § 174 — State human capital plans

(a) In General: Within 18 months after this section became law, the Secretary must encourage every state to create a voluntary plan — called a "human capital plan" — that covers the state's immediate and long-term staffing and workforce needs for delivering transportation and public infrastructure projects under this title. (b) Plan Contents: (1) As much as practical, a state's human capital plan should consider: (A) major trends, needs, and challenges in the transportation workforce; (B) the policies, strategies, and performance measures guiding workforce investment decisions; (C) coordination with schools, industry, labor unions, workforce boards, and other groups to meet workforce needs; (D) a workforce planning strategy identifying current and future needs, including skills needed to recruit and keep workers; (E) a workforce management strategy aligned with the state's transportation goals; (F) a plan for keeping leadership continuity and sharing knowledge across the state; (G) a plan for closing skill gaps, especially in critical jobs; (H) for public-private partnerships or other alternative project methods, a description of workforce needs to meet the state's goals and to get the best value from procurement; (I) a system to evaluate the state department of transportation's workforce management performance; and (J) how the plan will help the state meet national performance-management policy under section 150. (2) If a state makes a plan, it must cover a 5-year forecast period. (c) Plan Updates: States that create a plan must update it at least every 5 years. (d) Relationship to Long-range Plan: (1) Subject to (2), a state's human capital plan may be created separately from, or folded into, its long-range statewide transportation plan required under section 135. (2) Nothing here requires, or lets the Secretary require, a state to fold its human capital plan into that long-range plan. (e) Public Availability: Any state that makes a plan must post a copy of it, in a user-friendly format, on its transportation department's website. (f) Savings Provision: Nothing in this section stops a state from doing transportation workforce planning that is not described here, or that does not follow this section's approach.