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.