The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia, created in 2002 by the General Assembly through the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Act, Chapter 25, Title 33.2, of the Code of Virginia. The NVTA’s primary functions are to develop and update the region's long range transportation plan (TransAction), conduct regional transportation project planning, and with the funds available to NVTA, fund critical multimodal transportation projects benefiting Northern Virginia by giving priority to congestion reduction relative to cost.

On April 3, 2013, the Virginia General Assembly approved House Bill 2313 (HB 2313, 2013). This legislation established a funding stream for transportation in Northern Virginia and allowed NVTA to begin fulfilling its mission to address regional transportation challenges. Title 33.2-2500, of the Code of Virginia requires the separation of these funds into “70% Regional Revenue", which is allocated by NVTA for regional transportation projects; and “30% Local Distribution Revenue", which is distributed to jurisdictions for their transportation projects and purposes. Revenues began to flow to NVTA on July 1, 2013. Subsequently, on July 24, 2013, NVTA approved its first project list using the 70% Regional Revenues, the FY2014 Program, setting in motion a new era of transportation improvements for the Northern Virginia region. Following the adoption of the first three funding programs, NVTA currently conducts biannual updates to its Six Year Program (SYP). The most recent update was adopted on July 11, 2024, with 24 projects totaling approximately $700 million in funding. See more details in Table 1. This brings the total number of projects adopted by NVTA to 139 multimodal projects and the 70% Regional Revenue funds to $3.8 billion. In addition to NVTA 70% Regional Revenue funded projects, through the provisions of HB 2313, NVTA has distributed $1,099,383,185 in 30% Local Distribution Revenue funding directly to member jurisdictions for public transportation priorities within their jurisdictions.

NVTA embraces the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William, and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park. NVTA’s governing body consists of seventeen members as follows: the chief elected official, or his/her designee, of each county or city embraced by NVTA; two members appointed by the Speaker of the House; one member of the Senate appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules; and two citizens who reside in different counties or cities embraced by NVTA, appointed by the Governor, including a member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board. In addition, the Director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, the Commissioner of Highways or their designee(s); and the chief elected officer of one town in a county embraced by NVTA, all serve as non-voting members.

Per the Virginia General Assembly Budget Bill HB 5002 of 2014, the Joint Commission on Transportation Accountability (JCTA) shall regularly review and provide oversight of the usage of funding generated pursuant to the provisions of HB 2313. To meet this requirement, NVTA has prepared this report to inform the JCTA on the uses of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Fund for FY2024.