Every 12 years, each state agency must go before the Sunset Advisory Commission for evaluation and critical review. The result is a series of Sunset bills, filed in the House and Senate, that translate the commission's recommendations into proposed agency changes. If those recommendations are approved, the agency will alter its processes and protocol. After a little more than a decade, the Texas Department of Transportation finally had its time in the sun. These are the improvement recommendations provided to the state transportation agency from the Sunset Advisory Commission:

TxDOT should be using a more transparent, performance-based planning process for projects

• Create an online dashboard that communicates transportation planning goals. Update it regularly with each goal's progress. • Adopt a uniform newsletter template for engineers to use when updating local officials on a project's progress. Update local officials on a monthly basis. • Defer to Senate and House committees on transportation for oversight. Have legislative committees meet at least twice a year with TxDOT for this purpose.

TxDOT needs to more quickly finalize ongoing projects to eliminate backlogs and prepare for future

• Provide regular analysis to legislative oversight committees about TxDOT's efforts to correct issues related to underperformance.

TxDOT needs better oversight to ensure efficient spending of its billion dollar funding and timely completion of projects

• Create a system to retain payments from contractors as a performance management tool. Communicate when and how these payments would be retained during the contract period. • Consider past performance of contractors based on previous evaluations when going through the bidding process. • Develop criteria for applying sanctions. • Improve the availability of information used to compare bids when awarding contracts. Twenty-five other agencies underwent the Sunset process during this interim session. If the changes recommended by the committee are not signed into law under Gov. Abbott, TxDOT will face another review session following the 85th legislative session. The full Sunset Commission report can be viewed here.