NHTSA's Office of Regional Operations and Program Delivery (ROPD) administers over $500 million in grant programs annually to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Territories and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under Section 405, NHTSA awards grants for occupant protection, State traffic safety information systems, impaired driving countermeasures, distracted driving, motorcyclist safety, State graduated driver licensing laws, and non-motorized safety. Regional offices help States use data to identify their highway safety problems, evaluate safety programs and activities, and provide technical assistance and training to State program managers.

Since January 20, 2025, President Trump has issued several Executive Orders that rescind prior Executive Orders. Specifically, President Trump signed Executive Order 14148 (Initial Recission of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions), Executive Order 14173 (Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity), and an Executive Order titled Designating English as the Official Language of the United States (currently unnumbered).  As a result of these rescissions, the following Executive Orders in the Nondiscrimination Authorities list of the certifications and assurances are no longer in effect: Executive Order 12898, Executive Order 13166, Executive Order 13985, and Executive Order 13988.  

NHTSA will not enforce any requirements stemming from the rescinded Executive Orders.  Because States will not be held to comply with these rescinded Executive Orders, States do not need to re-sign certifications and assurances for fiscal year 2025.  NHTSA will take appropriate action to resolve this issue so that fiscal year 2026 certifications and assurances will not include any reference to rescinded authorities. 

The  Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes funding for traffic safety grants.

On December 4, 2015, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or “FAST Act” was signed into law. It was the first law enacted in over 10 years that provided long-term funding certainty for surface transportation, meaning States and local governments can move forward with critical transportation projects, like new highways and transit lines, with the confidence that they will have a Federal partner over the long term. The FAST Act authorized $2.7 billion in funding for the Section 402 Highway Safety Programs and Section 405 National Priority Safety Programs for fiscal years 2016 through 2020.

MAP-21 provides $1.3 billion for highway safety grant programs. It was enacted on July 6, 2012, and restructured existing grant programs administered by NHTSA. MAP-21 specifies a single application deadline for all highway safety grants and requires that all states have a performance-based highway safety program.

A reference guide for State Highway Safety Offices to help select effective, science-based traffic safety countermeasures to address highway safety problem areas in their States.