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Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transport. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966 and began operation on April 1, 1967. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Transportation.
Its mission is to “Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future.”
In some areas, like aviation and railroads, the federal government has taken over completely using its Commerce Clause powers and preempted virtually all regulation at the state and local levels. Construction and maintenance of highway and transit networks has traditionally been the responsibility of state governments in the United States. The federal government has increasingly become more active in transportation policy by levying federal taxes and making grants to state governments for specific projects, but technically, the actual day-to-day responsibility for the resulting projects remains with the states.
The Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration do not directly build and operate roads; they exist only to dispense grants to state governments and to ensure that those grants are used in a way that furthers national transportation policy. Of course, the gradually increasing reliance of states upon federal grants has given the federal government a significant amount of indirect control over state transportation policy through its Spending Clause powers. The Secretary of DOT is Mary Peters and the deputy Secretary is Maria Cino. DOTs budget as of 2004 was $58 billion and has about 58,622 employees.