The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The department's mission is "to develop and coordinate policies that will provide an efficient and economical national transportation system, with due regard for need, the environment, and the national defense."

History

Prior to the creation of the Department of Transportation, its functions were administered by the under secretary of commerce for transportation. In 1965, Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency (predecessor to the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

, FAA), suggested to President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

that transportation be elevated to a cabinet-level post, and that the FAA be folded into the DOT. It was established by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in the Department of Transportation Act on October 15, 1966. The department began operation on April 1, 1967. The idea of having a federal department of transportation was first proposed by former President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

in 1921–22.

Agencies

(FAA) *

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

(FHWA) * Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) * Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) * Federal Transit Administration (FTA) *

Maritime Administration Maritime administrations, or flag state administrations, are the executive arms/state bodies of each government responsible for carrying out the shipping responsibilities of the state, and are tasked to administer national shipping and boating issue ...

(MARAD) * National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) *

Office of Inspector General In the United States, Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to ma ...

(OIG) * Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) * Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) *

Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (GLS) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation that operates and maintains the U.S.-owned and operated facilities of the joint United States-Canadian St. Lawrence ...

(SLSDC) * John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center * Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)

Former agencies

* Transportation Security Administration – transferred to Department of Homeland Security in 2003 *

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

– transferred to Department of Homeland Security in 2003 * Surface Transportation Board (STB) – spun off as an independent federal agency in 2015

Budget

In 2012, the DOT awarded $742.5 million in funds from the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

to 11 transit projects. The awardees include light rail projects. Other projects include both a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...

extension and a subway project in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and a bus rapid transit system in Springfield, Oregon. The funds subsidize a heavy rail project in

northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...

, completing the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates transit service in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA was created by the United States Con ...

's Metro Silver Line to connect Washington, D.C., and the Washington Dulles International Airport. (DOT had previously agreed to subsidize the Silver Line construction to Reston, Virginia.) President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's budget request for 2010 also included $1.83 billion in funding for major transit projects. More than $600 million went towards ten new or expanding transit projects. The budget provided additional funding for all of the projects currently receiving Recovery Act funding, except for the bus rapid transit project. It also continued funding for another 18 transit projects that are either currently under construction or soon will be. Following the same, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 delegated $600 million for Infrastructure Investments, referred to as Discretionary Grants. The Department of Transportation was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2016 of $75.1 billion. The budget authorization is broken down as follows: In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The $1.2 trillion act included over $250 billion in funding for transportation-related infrastructure projects.

Related legislation

* 1806 – Cumberland Road * 1862 – Pacific Railway Act * 1887 – Interstate Commerce Act * 1916 –

Adamson Railway Labor Act Adamson may refer to: * Adamson (surname), list of people * ''Adamson'', taxonomic author abbreviation for British botanist Robert Stephen Adamson (1885–1965) * Adamson (automobile), an English automobile model * ''Adamson'' (comic strip) or ...

* 1935 – Motor Carrier Act * 1946 – Federal Airport Act, * 1950 – Federal Aid to Highway, * 1954 – Saint Lawrence Seaway Act * 1956 – Federal-Aid to Highway/Interstate Highway Act, * 1957 – Airways Modernization Act, * 1958 – Transportation Act of 1958, * 1958 – Federal Aviation Act, * 1959 – Airport Construction Act, * 1964 – Urban Mass Transportation Act, * 1965 – Highway Beautification Act, * 1966 – Department of Transportation established, * 1970 – Urban Mass Transportation Act, * 1970 – Rail Passenger Service Act PL 91-518 * 1970 – Airport and Airway Development Act PL 91-258 * 1973 – Federal Aid Highway Act PL 93-87 * 1973 – Amtrak Improvement Act PL 93-146 * 1973 – Federal Aid Highway Act PL 93-87 * 1974 – National Mass Transportation Assistance Act PL 93-503 * 1976 – Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act PL 94-210 * 1976 – Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act PL 94-435 * 1978 –

Airline Deregulation Act The Airline Deregulation Act is a 1978 United States federal law that deregulated the airline industry in the United States, removing federal control over such areas as fares, routes, and market entry of new airlines. The Civil Aeronautics Boa ...

PL 95-504 * 1980 – Motor Carrier Act PL 96-296 * 1980 – Staggers Rail Act PL 96-448 * 1982 – Transportation Assistance Act PL 97-424 * 1982 – Bus Regulatory Reform Act PL 97-261 * 1984 – Commercial Space Launch Act PL 98-575 * 1987 – Surface Transportation Act PL 100-17 * 1991 –

Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA, pronounced ''Ice-Tea'') is a United States federal law that posed a major change to transportation planning and policy, as the first U.S. federal legislation on the subject in ...

PL 102-240 * 1998 –

Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century The United States federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) is a federal transportation bill enacted June 9, 1998, as and . TEA-21 authorized federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit ...

PL 105-178 * 2000 –

Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century The Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century is a United States federal law, signed on 5 April 2000, seeking to improve airline safety. It is popularly called "AIR 21," and is also known as Public Law 106-181. Ba ...

PL 106-181 * 2001 –

Aviation and Transportation Security Act The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA, November 19, 2001) was enacted by the 107th United States Congress in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Act created the Transportation Security Administration ...

(PL 107-71) * 2002 – Homeland Security Act (PL 107-296) * 2005 – Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (PL 109-59) * 2012 –

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) is a funding and authorization bill to govern United States federal surface transportation spending. It was passed by Congress on June 29, 2012, and President Barack Obama signed it o ...

(MAP-21) PL 112-141 * 2015 –

Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act or the FAST Act is a funding and authorization bill to govern United States federal surface transportation spending. It was passed by Congress on December 3, 2015, and President Barack Obama signed ...

(FAST Act) PL 114-94 * 2021 - Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act PL 117-58

Freedom of Information Act processing performance

In the latest Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act FOIA requests, published in 2015 (using 2012 and 2013 data, the most recent years available), the Department of Transportation earned a D by scoring 65 out of a possible 100 points, i.e., did not earn a satisfactory overall grade.Making the Grade: Access to Information Scorecard 2015
. March 2015, p. 80, Center for Effective Government. Retrieved March 21, 2016.

References

External links

*
Department of Transportation
on USAspending.gov
United States Department of Transportation
in the Federal Register {{navboxes , list = {{United States Department of Transportation {{United States federal executive departments {{Lyndon B. Johnson, state=collapsed {{Authority control {{Portal bar, United States {{Include-USGov-DOT Transportation government agencies of the United States Government agencies established in 1966

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

1966 establishments in Washington, D.C.