Federal Government’s NHTSA Overhaul Starts With Massive Job Cuts

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been hard at work lately, keeping up with dozens of recalls that impact millions of cars on American roads, investigating companies like Cruise and Tesla as they test new technology in public, and writing new rules and regulations it also has to enforce. Now, the government is spreading its massive job cuts to the Department of Transportation, offering payout deals to thousands of federal workers at NHTSA, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

DOGE Comes For The Department Of Transportation

New details provided to Congress reveal the Trump administration’s intentions to offer thousands of federal employees financial incentive programs to depart their jobs, Reuters reports. There are around 2.3 million civilian federal workers, though that was reduced by around 260,000 civil servants in April already due to the new Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts. It should be noted that the NHTSA has ongoing investigations into Tesla, which is led by Elon Musk, who spearheaded the DOGE movement under the new Trump Administration. The exec has distanced himself from government work in recent months, but the drama of it all is as strong as ever.

Cuts Across Several Federal Transportation Agencies

The NHTSA had 772 employees as of the end of May, which will now be cut to 555 employees. It should be noted that the organization grew under the previous Biden administration by about 30%, so the cuts scale it back to its staff size during Trump’s first term. Overall, the DOT is projected to drop from 57,000 jobs down to 52,862 by the end of the new incentive program. That includes a reduction of about 25% of the staff at the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration each, and the Federal Aviation Administration will drop from 46,250 jobs down to 44,208.

Clearing Up Some Alleged Bloat

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters on Thursday that no critical safety roles have been cut, though the exact definition of what jobs are being targeted has not been reported. It’s possible that, after the buyout program, the DOT will make further layoffs to its workforce, as it faces scrutiny for budget cuts going forward. The secretary told reporters there was “bloat in certain areas,” but that the department will consider rehires if it’s necessary.

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How this will affect the NHTSA’s functionality going forward isn’t entirely clear. It’s no secret that the organization hasn’t had the best track record for implementing changes prior to the cuts. Case-in-point: updated rules for vehicle lighting that accommodate modern adaptive headlights were so convoluted and mired in red tape that the tech still isn’t legal in the US. As a result, headlights on modern vehicles have become increasingly brighter and harder to modulate, essentially becoming a safety issue.

There is currently talk in Congress of cutting the NHTSA budget by as much as $10 million, and the agency could be further impacted by the proposed cut of $78 million of supplemental funds from the 2021 infrastructure law.