# Department of Transportation The **Department of Transportation (DOT)** oversees the national transportation system across modes — the Federal Aviation Administration (air-traffic control and aviation safety), the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (vehicle safety and fuel-economy standards), and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Established in 1967, it is principally a safety regulator and an infrastructure-funding conduit, distributing tens of billions in highway, transit, and aviation money to states and localities each year. For the KB, DOT matters as a **deregulation-and-priorities battleground**: the direction of fuel-economy and emissions rules, the allocation of infrastructure dollars between highways and transit, the safety oversight of a strained air-traffic system, and the politics of electric-vehicle and rail policy. It is less ideologically charged than DOJ or HHS, but it controls real money and real rules. ## Leadership (2025–) **[[Sean Duffy]]** — a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and Fox Business host — was confirmed Secretary of Transportation on January 28, 2025, by a 77–22 vote. Duffy's tenure has foregrounded aviation-safety strain (air-traffic-controller shortages and high-profile incidents), the rollback of fuel-economy and EV-favoring rules, and a reorientation of infrastructure priorities toward roads and traditional fuels. ## Major agencies Tracked as plain references until individual pages are built: - **Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)** — air-traffic control and aviation safety; under acute staffing and modernization pressure. - **Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)** — the highway program and its formula funding. - **National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)** — vehicle safety and CAFE fuel-economy standards. - **Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)** and **Federal Transit Administration (FTA)** — rail and transit safety and funding. - **Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)** — pipeline and hazmat safety. ## The capture lens The [[Project 2025]] agenda emphasizes deregulation and a retreat from transit, rail, and EV priorities toward highways and traditional fuels. The patterns the KB tracks: - **Fuel-economy and emissions rollback** — weakening CAFE standards and EV-favoring rules at NHTSA. - **Infrastructure redirection** — steering Bipartisan Infrastructure Law money away from transit and climate-oriented projects. - **FAA strain** — the controller shortage and modernization backlog as a safety-and-management story. - **Deregulatory posture** — lighter-touch safety rulemaking across modes. ## See Also - [[Project 2025]] - [[Cabinet Departments Hub]] - [[Federal Agencies]]