Forty-five states and the District of Columbia identified reporting requirements in their survey responses as a mechanism for legislative oversight of their DOTs. Legislatures commonly require in statute that a DOT submit certain reports to the full legislature or a legislative committee. Often, these reports must be concurrently submitted to an executive oversight authority such as the governor or transportation commission. Commonly required reports include reviews of expenditures and obligations; descriptions of agency objectives and strategies; details of planned, ongoing or future projects; updates on certain mandated processes; fiscal forecasts; reports on new or controversial initiatives, such as public-private partnerships or design-build contracting; reviews of progress on performance goals; and reports on other agency activities. Some reporting requirements may be instituted due to lack of information about or past concern with a program. In other cases, DOT reports to the legislature are required only for a limited time in order to facilitate legislative oversight of a particular task or activity. For example, the Massachusetts DOT-newly created in 2009-has many current reporting requirements to the legislature, some of which will end when the transition to the new organization is complete.