2026 State Legislative Recap: Expanded Authority, Sunsets and What Comes Next

State legislative sessions are wrapping up across the country, and design-build continues to gain momentum.

In this episode of Design-Build Delivers, DBIA’s Richard Thomas joins Erin Looney to break down the biggest state legislative developments affecting design-build, including expanded authority, progressive design-build activity, sunset extensions and removals and the growing role of DBIA regions in legislative advocacy.

Richard discusses why transportation remains active, why water/wastewater and building projects are increasingly important and how states such as Missouri, California, Illinois and West Virginia reflect broader national trends. He also explains why passing legislation is only part of the work. Once Owners receive new or expanded authority, they still need training, internal alignment, industry engagement and the right support to use design-build successfully.

The conversation also looks ahead to the next legislative cycle, including expected activity in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York and other states, as well as federal transportation reauthorization.

Resources:

• DBIA Pending Legislation: Follow the latest state legislative activity affecting design-build authority, including updates on transportation, water/wastewater and other public-sector markets. 
• DBIA State Advocacy: Explore DBIA’s state advocacy resources, including guidance for advancing effective design-build legislation and supporting broader understanding of collaborative delivery. 
• DBIA Advocacy Toolkits: Access practical tools and resources to help Owners, practitioners and advocates communicate the value of design-build and support Design-Build Done Right® implementation. 
• States Look to Broaden Design-Build Authority in Transportation, Water/Wastewater in 2026: Read DBIA’s overview of 2026 state legislative trends, including efforts to expand and refine design-build authority in transportation and water/wastewater.
• The Role of the Owner Advisor in Design-Build Projects: Learn how experienced Owner Advisors can help Owners prepare for design-build success, from procurement planning to implementation of Design-Build Done Right® best practices. 
  
  

Access all our free design-build resources and learn more about Design-Build Done Right® at dbia.org.

DBIA members are shaping the future, one successful collaboration at a time. 

Transcript

Erin Looney  00:05

welcome to the two-time Stevie Award-winning Design Build Delivers podcast, brought to you by Arcons and Autodesk Platinum Partner. I am your host, Aaron Looney, and today we're talking about everyone's favorite light beach read, just in time for your summer vacation. It's state legislation. What, that's not.. it's not on your reading list. Well, fine, whatever. It's not as exciting as high-profile World Cup exits. I will give you that. But if you care about how projects get authorized, procured, and delivered, this is where a lot of the action is. State legislative sessions are wrapping up around the country, and Design Build has had another very busy year. We're seeing states expand authority, extend or remove sunsets, revise pilot programs, and because this is Progressive Design Build's world, and we're just kind of all living in it, a lot of continued movement around PDB, so to help us sort through all of the things that have happened and what they mean for the industry, I'm talking with DBIA's Richard Thomas. Richard tracks this work across the country, which means he spends a heroic amount of time reading bills, so the rest of us don't have to develop a stress twitch over it. In this episode, we talk about where design build is gaining momentum, why some states and regions stood out this year, what owners need to do after new authority passes, and why legislation is just the beginning. So, we decided to do this episode now, because state legislative sessions are wrapping up, and we've got a big wave of updates, they're all coming in, they're all kind of settling around the same time, but before we get into some of what those are, let's do a high level what gives, so states across the country expanded, they extended, they reinforced design build authority, and we are going to get into the weeds, but if someone said to you, what's the biggest headline from across the entire session. What would you say?

Speaker 1  02:04

Design build is on the move, particularly progressive design build all levels of government. The last six to 12 months have probably, from a legislative perspective, been about the best we've had at DBIA. I mean, we've had big advancements at the federal level, we've had big advancement at the state level. So I'm really happy and optimistic about direction we're going,

Erin Looney  02:30

and what we'll do in a little bit is let you take as much credit for that as you'd like. But for now, we're going to start with market sectors. Now, you did mention progressive design build, and we will get into that momentarily, but I'd like to look at sectors and states and regions first. So the usual suspects in terms of sector were here: transportation, aviation, education. So talk to us about where you saw a lot of movement and what might have contributed to that increase in attention.

Speaker 1  02:59

If you look at it by the numbers, the sector that had the most movement was transportation. However, I think if you break that down and really look at, you know, what bills were the most impactful, you'll see it's more spread out, you know. For example, by general sector breakdown, almost half of the bills that passed were transportation bills, but when you look at the bills that were the most impactful, for instance, out in Missouri, where they're, you know, they're getting progressive design build authority, that's for all sectors. I'm guessing we're going to probably see more buildings and water projects come out of that than road projects out in California, where they're also dealing with the elimination of a sunset, that too. I mean, because the D O T has their own authority, this is going to affect local governments a lot more in most of their projects. Although California is an exception, they do do a lot of local design build transportation projects, also too. If you look back, the big infrastructure bill that was passed at the at the federal level, that money is still being spent. That was the biggest infusion of dollars for water projects. So local governments, you know, now they have that money, they're starting to put those projects out. That's why you're seeing an increase in bills too.

Erin Looney  04:16

We actually on the Design Bill Delivers blog just put out a quick piece on some of the award-winning water wastewater projects from last year, and we talked a bit about infrastructure needs, because things age and they stop working in the environment they're in, even though they might have been perfectly functional when they started. So it's interesting that you bring that up about water and wastewater, but let's move now to regions. We saw significant movement in a handful of DBIA's 14 regions. Give us a little inside baseball on which of those regions, which is a word I'm going to try not to say again in one sentence, stood out and what might be contributing to that movement in those regions. I did it. I'm sorry. Okay,

Speaker 1  05:00

the regions that had the most legislation would have been Mid America, Great Lakes, although the state that had the most bills was Illinois, Western Pacific, we generally have a lot of bills in California, but Ohio Valley, we had bills both in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, you know, we're seeing design build legislation pop up in regions where we historically we haven't seen it so much, and a lot of these bills too were related to sunsets and pilot programs, so that's part of the reason too why you see it so scattered.

Erin Looney  05:32

You mentioned Illinois, which we will talk about specifically in just a minute, but first you've also mentioned Missouri, California, a couple other states that had significant design build activity in the session. Those would be the Western Pacific and Mid America regions that, again, you've already mentioned. So, let's dive into that. Man, I hate that phrase. Let's dig into that a little bit more. What happens there in those regions could influence national momentum, some of these newer areas that you're mentioning, so what would you say that the activity in Western Pacific and Mid America, what would that possibly tell us nationally? A

Speaker 1  06:08

few things. One, I would say it shows that both of these regions have not taken their foot off the gas pedal. They've, over the last five years, they've passed significant legislation, and a lot of some regions might have said, you know, hey, that was a good win, we're content with that, but each year they've been coming back and either refining the legislation that they have or expanding it. In both states, California and Missouri, there's some similarities in that both of those states had sunsets on their programs, and both of those states have been working for years to get rid of that Mid America region was successful in eliminating their sunset in Missouri last year, but the one thing they wanted to do was, you know, was to get progressive authority too, and they didn't want to try to do two things at once last year, because you know the more moving parts you have, the greater uncertainty you have at the legislature. So, I think that was a prudent thing to do. And then they, they came back and they pushed it through. And in California, they're getting close to the finish line. Their bill that they have that would eliminate the sunset is getting close to passage. I think also what you're seeing in both of those states, both Missouri and in California, you say pretty mature programs, they've really done a good job of reaching out to local officials, both at the state and local level, I know they even serving on their boards, things like that, so I think having those relationships with those public officials has really built a lot of trust, and also in those states, both of those states, you're seeing the trend, there are leaders in progressive both those regions, they've been aggressive about trying to get full design build authority, so I think what it really shows is that if you have a sustained focus and effort in your advocacy that you, you can make that incremental growth,

Erin Looney  08:09

and so let's now talk about the great state of Illinois. It's come up a couple times in today's conversation. What's going on there, and what makes Illinois such an important state to watch?

Speaker 1  08:20

There's no state that I've lost more sleep than Illinois. Well, one, I mean, we get a lot of volume. We're going to have probably 20 to 30 bills every year that maybe aren't directly affect design build, but are in the same part of the code. So, so you have to be very vigilant with that. The challenge we had in Illinois this year was the Design Build Procurement Act was set to expire january 1 of 2027 so while that wouldn't affect, like for instance, the D O T, that would be a huge impact on the building sector in the state, so it was imperative that we get that extended or eliminated, and there were bills, there were some bills to eliminate it, there were bills to extend it, and at the same time we were also trying to get expand design build authority for water, we got half a loaf, it went down to the wire, we did get the design build procurement act extended to 2030 the progressive design build portion was extended to 2028 but we came up short on the water side, and that would be Senate Bill 3381 It was successful in getting through the Senate, but it didn't get a vote in the House. Needless to say, that will be what we have unfinished business in Illinois next year.

Erin Looney  09:40

If Illinois doesn't shape up, you're going to lose a lot more sleep, and nobody wants an unslept Richard. No one

Speaker 1  09:48

wants cram casting.

Erin Looney  09:49

So now, from way up high, talking about geography and sectors to some more specific issues, these are things. We've hit on already, but we're going to focus a little more. So, in a surprise to absolutely no one in the industry, progressive design build was a hot topic again. From your conversations that you've had with lawmakers, advocates, our members, why is progressive design build still the thing that never ends?

Speaker 1  10:20

Legislation for progressive, it's been, it's being done very piecemeal. The federal government, we are seeing a pretty broad effort to broaden its use, particularly in the military side with Milcon, but at the state level, what we're seeing is for the most part those states that have pretty mature programs, they've been probably more proactive in taking the first jump in the pool. I think what we're seeing, though, is you know different states are doing it for different reasons. I know at the federal level, and particularly in the D O T's, a lot of the big thing is faster procurement. If you have a project that's creating congestion, you want to get that project done. If it's military, you want to get those projects done as quickly as possible. Also, I think, particularly on the on the bigger projects, folks are looking for better risk mitigation. I think that more owners have realized now that having early design builder and involvement is really improved the cost management and the transparency, you know, these days transparency is a benefit all of its own, you know. So, it's interesting, you know, where states where you're seeing a lot of development, where there's a lot of growth, I think there's a lot of advantages for having that, and I think projects where there's more technical solutions, your more complicated projects. I mean, the military, they said straight out. I mean, our bigger, more complicated projects, we're going to be looking at progressive those more traditional projects. We're going to be looking to build a budget. I think that folks now just see it as more of a viable option, and I think the legislation is starting to reflect that the

Erin Looney  12:02

Design Build Delivers podcast is brought to you by Arcons, your technology optimization partner, helping design build teams streamline workflows with Autodesk Solutions expert support and real world training. Ready to work smarter and faster, get tools, insights, and schedule your AI readiness check at archons.us/dbia so another thing that's popular every session are these sunsets you've mentioned periodically here, and for anyone who wants to drill down on sunsets, we've got a lot of other articles and other episodes that can get into what what that is, but basically we're talking about extending existing authority, removing the end date for authority, or creating just longer windows. What do these extensions and these removals and these shifts in time tell us about how states are starting to see design build now?

Speaker 1  12:58

Every time I see the removal or legislation to remove a sunset, it's telling me, you know, it demonstrates a design build is more, it's the norm. I mean, why would we put sunsets, a time limit on the most used delivery method? Kind of seems silly, and I think, as you know, we have a whole generation now of folks that have used it and have more exposure to it, so and also, too. I mean, you have to ask the question, why are these sunsets? Why were they put in in the first place? It's generally for political reasons, it's not anything to benefit the project or system.

Erin Looney  13:36

So, we have covered a lot of activity, we've covered a lot of information. Fortunately, there are people here at DBIA and across the industry who do the managing and the shaping and just surviving all this intersecting chaos. So, for our listeners who are going, what, what are you talking about? The good news is people like you are working to direct the traffic, so teams can focus on delivery specifically. As I mentioned, you, we've got Eden, our communications and advocacy associate, keeping your life a little bit cleaner, and our regions team hustling during legislative sessions. You're all just moving everywhere, so pinning any of you down is an exercise in futility. Now, that comes from a lot of things. One of the main reasons is legislative work doesn't just start and end during a session, we're talking about long before the bills pass, education to people who this affects, relationship building, tracking, clarifying all of this stuff for somebody out there who just sees the outcomes. Can you paint a picture of how DBIA works behind the scenes to make sure people can continue to do their work in the most efficient, cost-effective, and productive way.

Speaker 1  14:48

I think it's the collaboration between national and regions that really is the, it's the secret sauce. I've been doing this for 2030 years, I, you know, I know my work. Know my craft, but the folks in the region, they're our eyes and ears. If you're reacting to a bill that just got introduced, you're probably too late. I mean, legislation is generally it's something that takes a lot of planning. So, I'll give an example. Let's take California and Missouri, and in their respective regions, all of the legislation that they passed, the regents were involved with helping to draft that bill. They testifying in the bill, and even the first advocacy that you're doing, even before you get to the state legislature, is within the industry, because typically, if the industry is divided, it's going to be difficult to pass legislation. Most legislators don't know our business, so you know if we come to the legislature speaking with one voice or where there's a consensus, that's very powerful. You look at our regions, let's say you pass legislation, I think that's where again, where our regions really come up huge is with the aftercare. I mean, they're the ones that are dealing with these owners on a daily basis. They're the ones that are going to be working on their projects, so it's the relationships that they build with these owners is going to be a part of the success or failure of the program. We can have authority, but to get owners to actually use the method they need to hear from folks in their area that they need to have champions both within the agencies and within the industry to advocate to use this method, I think with both cases, you know, this year we really saw the regions come up big in Mid America. They not only had the big bill passed in Missouri, they had legislation passed in Nebraska, Western Pacific. They're going to have three bills passed out this year in California. The budget bill has over a half a billion dollars worth of earmarks for design build projects, including two courthouses. I would say, for some of those that are more kind of up and comer. I mean, let's look at Ohio Valley. West Virginia passed three bills this year, and including a progressive bill. I think, particularly in West Virginia, it was the early work that the region did, talking to owners to sell them on the idea that not only is this a good method, but we can deliver this. You've worked with us before, you can trust us, and they deliver. I

Erin Looney  17:26

don't know why, but something about you talking about that reminds me of how, if you really step back and look, the United States is humongous. I had a roommate in my doctoral program who was from France, and she said to me that she was going to drive from Florida to California, and I said, "Do you know how long that takes? She was like, "A couple days. I was like, "Oh my god, are you going 300 miles an hour? No, just to clarify, not to say France isn't a big country in and of itself, but we're, you know, talking about just vast expanses. It makes me think of how if somebody in West Virginia is saying to somebody in California, this is what we're doing, and it works really well, that California person is going to be like, yeah, but you don't get it, and that's a very fair assessment. I mean, things are different, people are different, the geography is different, the weather is different, everything is so disparate and so diverse across this massive, massive space we live on, that it really seems that the key to any sort of progress is your neighbors, your regional partners in close proximity are the ones who are saying, "Hey, listen, this is a great idea, and it worked in a similar environment to what you're dealing with.

Speaker 1  18:41

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think one thing that's really key too is hearing from peers. For instance, with DBIA Transportation Committee, we have quite a few D OT members that serve on the committee, and every other month we do an educational call where we invite other D O Ts that aren't members, where we have a topic that they'll talk about, and it gets pretty well attended. One of the beautiful things that comes up is a state will come up with a question about something really down in the weeds and say, hey, we got this problem, and instead of me telling them, hey, this is, you know, I mean, I will tell them what our best practices is, but I generally, what I'll do is, I'll copy all the owners on the committee, and those other D O Ts will respond. I would say most of the states that have gotten design build authority, let's take Wisconsin, they had spoke with folks from Minnesota and from Missouri and other states that their peers to see from them, how did it really work, as opposed to some someone trying to sell them something, and that's really, I think, the most powerful. I mean, that's why our owner forums are always so well attended at our conferences, for the same reasons.

Erin Looney  19:53

I think that's a really great idea, that you bring them together on, you know, not just geography, but their peers in. Industry, that's a really cool opportunity. So, if you want to push that to anyone, I'm happy to share that information through show notes if you want. So, let's move on to passing legislation we know is step one, or based on what we were just talking about, sometimes step five, step six. If you've been working on it for a while, the point is it's not the end of the conversation once the legislation is passed, you've said that, so let's stay there for a little while. Once owners get new authority, expanded authority, they still need to understand when to use design build, how to procure it properly, how to apply design build done right best practices. So, you've got this new bill in your state, what do owners need to do once their authority changes?

Speaker 1  20:45

Funny that you asked us, because we had a very similar question in the discussion yesterday with folks at Federal Highways, and because they're doing their new everyday accounts initiative, and that's one of the things that came up as well. What are folks doing after, and what should they be doing. Number one, I think they need to do a self-assessment with our existing resources and staff. What can we manage? Do we have enough to do this program? Are we going to need additional staff? We're certainly, if you're your first time, you need additional training, because I mean, I wouldn't hire a mechanic that didn't have the proper training. I think that is really crucial. I think you want to get the training not only for those, I think for all of those folks that are involved with the project, and I don't mean just the management. I think you want the finance folks and all that, because I think it's very important for the owner that they have buy-in from their agency, so they're all can work as a team. I think the other thing is you need to have the relationships and reach out to the industry that, okay, we have this new authority that you're going to be doing, you know, you're going to be working on these projects, so I think it's important that you work with them, so you craft it, because once you have the legislation, you still have rules and other processes that you have to go through, and I think that's something that, as you start to lay out and implement that, you want to be talking both to your local industry and your fellow peers. There's no shame in asking, how did you do it the first time?

Erin Looney  22:24

Yeah, and it's the concept of what the legislation giveth, the legislation can take it away. So it's true, everyone, I'm thinking of a vulgar phrase. If everyone messes it up, we'll stay there, mucks the whole thing up, then everything you think that you've been able to do could be completely reversed.

Speaker 1  22:42

Well, right, if a design bid build project goes south, we don't blame the delivery method, we blame the weather, we blame the contract. But you know, if it's new design build authority, they're going to question the delivery method. The other thing I would throw out there, too, especially if it's a first project, is an owner may want to consider hiring someone to help them have a consultant that would be their owner advisor.

Erin Looney  23:08

I was going to say an owner advisor by chance.

Speaker 1  23:10

Yes, because I think that's important. I mean, I know I would, if it was me, I would want someone that, where it's not their first rodeo, to advise

Erin Looney  23:20

us to keep you from stepping into the Grand Canyon, exactly every legislative session, every time we do this, it's busy. It's honestly, I do not know how you keep up. I would lose my mind, but you know this one leads to the next one, leads to the next one, leads to the next one, more sunset conversations, more authority expansions, more sector-specific bills, and then who knows what's going to come up, some strange anomaly somewhere. So, as we wrap this session, it's safe to say it's not too soon to look ahead. You've mentioned that already. Where, though, should DBIA owners and industry practitioners be looking now, between now and the next session?

Speaker 1  23:59

Well, things will be big in Texas next year, as you know. Texas legislature meets every other year, so we know there will be, you know, we're going to be on the offense pushing to expand design build at the water wastewater sector. Last time out, we were on the defense on transportation, so we don't know if that will be the case. Illinois, there's unfinished business. I expect that we're going to see the water wastewater bill back. There's also been talk of working on the transportation bill. It's kind of clunky. I think Mid America, again, that has been busy. I would expect that the state there, where we may be the busiest next year, is Minnesota, typically the first year of their legislative session is pretty active. There will be a new governor, so that too will be an interesting dynamic. And also, I would say the Liberty New York metro regions, I think you know there's unfinished businesses in Pennsylvania, there's. Still a lot of work to do in New York. I would expect those states, but that being said, historically we've seen more bills in the south central and southwest too. So, at least I would say 50 to 60% of all the bills that pop up are bills we didn't necessarily plan on. So legislators have a mind of their own, so we'll see. We just have to be able to move fast, but we know that in southwest Great Lakes, there's going to be

Speaker 2  25:30

in Mid America there will be legislation.

Erin Looney  25:32

Interested to see how many surprises pop up.

Speaker 1  25:35

You know, this is going to be one of the states. One of the big, biggest challenges we often have is turnover. We know there's a lot of dissatisfaction with Washington these days. The approval ratings for the president and Congress have never been lower, but how that translates, and if that translates down to the state local level, remains to be seen. But we do know in some states, because of term limits or folks not running, there are going to be, you know, Minnesota is one of those. We know there's going to be a new governor, we know there's going to be a new speaker, Senate leader. So, whenever there's new changes, it's always new opportunities,

Erin Looney  26:14

and anybody who's been watching the news and keeping up knows that almost none of this is as predictable as the pundits would like it to be so, like you say, you know you're going to see some changes, and you're going to have to react as much as you are planning in some other spaces.

Speaker 1  26:29

The one thing we can't always promise, though, at the state level is there is resolution. They have to balance budgets every year, so they will, one way or another, they will pass a budget and all of the bills that go with it, so there's no kicking the can down the road for years. Generally, we do know, you know, at the federal level there are some hot ones. The reauthorization of the transportation bill, that's critically important bill, that's it funds all our D O Ts, that authority expires in September, so Congress has to either pass a bill or extend the current bill. The House bill that passed out of it, passed out of committee, does have progressive design build provisions in it that we like. We would prefer better funding levels, but the Senate bill, it remains to be seen what the Senate is going to do. I think it's very likely we could see them just do an extension and push it into next year.

Erin Looney  27:30

Isn't that carved over the door of the Senate? It remains to be seen what we will

Speaker 3  27:34

do. If it isn't, it should be burned into the way.

Erin Looney  27:38

Thanks again to Richard Thomas for joining the show and helping translate a very busy legislative year into something the rest of us can actually follow without needing a flow chart, a legal pad, and possibly cutting into our vacation reading list. The big so what here is that design build is evolving, states are expanding authority, progressive design build continues to gain traction, and more owners are getting access to delivery options that can help them manage complexity, cost, schedule pressure, mitigate risk, but as Richard made clear, passing legislation is just the start. New authority only matters if owners are prepared to use it well. That means training, internal alignment, industry engagement, and a real commitment to design, build done right. You can find related resources, legislative updates, and links in the show notes and@dbia.org And if you liked this episode, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, share it with someone who also spends way too much time thinking about procurement authority, and join us next time. Thanks, as always, to Arcons for supporting the Design Build Delivers podcast. Learn more at arcons.us/dbia you.