Metro

Metro, a regional government agency and transit authority serving the Portland metropolitan area, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants (75% of recent awards) focused on transportation planning, transit infrastructure development, and regional climate and environmental initiatives. Metro is a U.S. local government entity based in Portland, Oregon, with no federal contract prime capability but extensive grant receipts from the Department of Transportation, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Metro's grant work centers on three capability domains. Transportation demand management and planning dominate the portfolio — Metro administers Federal Transit Administration (FTA) formula grants for transit corridor project development, including the $6.69 million Tualatin Valley Highway Transit Project (awarded July 2025, CFDA 20.507) and the $6.69 million 82nd Avenue Transit Project (awarded June 2025, CFDA 20.507), both directed toward preliminary design and NEPA compliance to advance Small Starts capital investment grants. Metro also delivers a $6.96 million FTA formula grant for comprehensive transportation demand management and public engagement across 23 sub-awardees including TriMet, the City of Portland, Clackamas County, and community organizations (awarded June 2025). Environmental and climate planning work includes a $1.5 million EPA Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 66.818) for brownfield assessment and revitalization across three Oregon counties (awarded October 2024), a $1 million EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CFDA 66.046) for regional climate mitigation planning through June 2027 (awarded July 2023), and a $753 thousand project grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (CFDA 15.623) for wetland restoration in Clackamas County (awarded April 2025). Transit-adjacent grants include a $2.4 million Safe Streets and Roads for All program grant from the Federal Highway Administration for pedestrian safety planning across the Portland region (awarded September 2023) and a $1.11 million NHTSA Discretionary Safety Grant (CFDA 20.614) for Safe Routes to School interventions launching April 2026. Metro held a single federal contract award — a $154 thousand purchase order from the Department of Veterans Affairs to host the 42nd National Veterans Wheelchair Games at the Oregon Convention Center in July 2023.

Customer concentration sits with the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Administration, which account for 72% of recent awards by count. The FTA dominates both volume and dollars — 27 awards across formula grants, most carrying modest potential values but anchoring Metro's planning and demand management footprint. The Department of Veterans Affairs, by potential-value ranking, anchors a single but material award at $171 thousand. The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service carries nine awards totaling $38 thousand in combined potential value for habitat and species recovery projects. Metro's sub-award footprint consists of 27 grants passed through from the Oregon Department of Transportation for transportation planning work under the Unified Planning Work Program, Transportation Systems Management & Operations planning, and transit options programming — Metro acts as sub-recipient on these passthrough awards.

Activity shows strong recent growth: one award in 2022, six in 2023, eight in 2024, and a surge to 28 in 2025, with the most recent award in April 2026. Four awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating modest recompete exposure. Because Metro is a U.S. government entity serving as a regional planning and transit authority, it does not compete under SBA set-asides, hold contracts on government-wide vehicles, or serve as a subcontractor to federal primes. Its federal footprint is exclusively grant-based, with the FTA formula grant program (CFDA 20.507) as the dominant vehicle, supplemented by discretionary and cooperative agreements from EPA, DOI, and NHTSA focused on regional environmental, safety, and transportation equity outcomes.