Transportation Opportunities for Professional Service Act or the TOPS Act
This bill establishes federal training and educational programs to develop the transportation workforce.
It directs the Department of Transportation to
- create a task force on developing a 21st century surface transportation workforce;
- provide grants to partnerships including states, institutions of higher education, and others, to support transportation-sector education and workforce development projects;
- conduct a national and international scanning tour of surface transportation agencies to identify critical future investment in workforce development;
- designate certain geographically diverse consortia of two-year institutions of higher education as Community and Technical College Centers of Excellence in Transportation Workforce Training;
- establish and administer a transportation workforce outreach program to carry out a series of public service announcement campaigns, including to increase diversity and the awareness of career opportunities in the transportation sector; and
- address emerging technologies in the transportation workforce, including cybersecurity related to such technologies.
Additionally, the Government Accountability Office must study issues relating to workforce development in intelligent and zero-emissions transportation technologies.