I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3785 
To amend title 23, United States Code, to require that public employees 
perform construction inspection work for federally funded highway 
projects, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 1, 2023 
Mr. GARAMENDI (for himself, Ms. BROWNLEY, and Ms. JACKSON LEE) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Trans-
portation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To amend title 23, United States Code, to require that 
public employees perform construction inspection work 
for federally funded highway projects, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Inspectors for 
Safe Infrastructure Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. REQUIRING CONSTRUCTION INSPECTION SERVICES 
FOR CERTAIN HIGHWAY CONTRACTS TO BE 
PERFORMED BY PUBLIC EMPLOYEES. 
Section 112(b) of title 23, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) CONSTRUCTION INSPECTION SERVICES.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—In entering into a 
contract under this section for the construction 
of a project subject to subsection (a), including 
a design-build project under paragraph (3) and 
a project using a 2-phase contract under para-
graph (4), a State transportation department or 
local transportation agency shall ensure that a 
public employee performs construction inspec-
tion functions for such project. 
‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—If a State transpor-
tation department or local transportation agen-
cy does not have adequate existing or obtainable 
staff to perform construction inspection func-
tions as required under subparagraph (A), the 
department or agency may obtain such services 
pursuant to temporary consultant contracts 
until the department or agency has adequate or 
existing staff to perform such functions. 
‘‘(C) TIME PERIOD.—Any temporary con-
tracts to provide construction inspection serv-
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ices under this subsection shall not exceed the 
period that ends on the date that is 12 months 
after the date on which the contract is awarded. 
‘‘(D) REPORTING AND TRANSPARENCY.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—At least once each 
fiscal year, a State transportation depart-
ment or local transportation agency uti-
lizing the exception authority provided in 
subparagraph (B) shall submit to the Sec-
retary a report containing— 
‘‘(I) a description of all construc-
tion inspection functions provided 
through temporary consultant con-
tracts under such clause; and 
‘‘(II) a detailed justification of 
the need for each exception to the re-
quirement of such clause. 
‘‘(ii) TRANSPARENCY.—The Secretary 
shall make the report submitted under 
clause (i) available to the public through 
the website of the Department. 
‘‘(E) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
‘‘(i) 
CONSTRUCTION
INSPECTION 
FUNCTION.—The term ‘construction in-
spection function’ includes construction en-
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gineering, contract administration, on-site 
quality control inspection, materials test-
ing, and the functions of a resident engi-
neer or assistant resident engineer respon-
sible for the acceptance or rejection of a 
project subject to the provisions of sub-
section (a) of this section. 
‘‘(ii) PUBLIC EMPLOYEE.—The term 
‘public employee’ means an employee of 
the Federal Government, a State govern-
ment, or a local government.’’. 
Æ 
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