- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will reportedly lose over 28% of its workforce.
- Proposed legislation could also cut millions in funding, affecting research and safety.
- Safety groups joined forces to warn against cuts and said the NHTSA has been “decimated.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plays a critical role in ensuring American roadways are safe. The agency is best-known for recalls, but they also do other important work ranging from investigations to raising awareness about risky driving behaviors.
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Given this importance, there’s concern the agency’s workforce will be reduced by over 28%. Citing data provided to Congress, Reuters is reporting the number of employees at the NHTSA will fall from 772 to 555. This is said to be the result of “financial incentive programs” designed to get people to leave, rather than the drastic and haphazard cuts seen elsewhere in the government.
More: NHTSA Cuts 4% Of Its Workers But Continues Tesla Investigations
The NHTSA isn’t alone as the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration are also said to be losing more than 25% of their staff. In total, the U.S. Department of Transportation will reportedly lose 4,138 employees as their workforce is slated to shrink to 52,862 people.
That’s a sizable reduction, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said they’re not cutting critical employees involved in safety. However, a number of observers are worried about the future of the NHTSA.
More Cuts Could Be Coming
Posted by U.S. Department of Transportation on Monday, January 20, 2025
Yesterday, Consumer Reports and other organizations joined forces to warn against “harmful cuts” to the NHTSA. These were proposed in the 2026 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill.
In a letter, the group explained the stakes as they noted “Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of preventable injuries and deaths in the United States.” The coalition went on to say approximately 44,000 people are killed every year in traffic crashes, while another 2.6 million are injured.
Despite this, the proposed legislation wants to cut over $10 million from NHTSA’s operations and research account. Roughly $78 million in supplemental funds would also be eliminated, “impeding important crash data collection and analysis, vehicle safety and behavioral research, and highway traffic safety programs.” The coalition said they’re “particularly concerned that such funding cuts may lead to further firings or forced retirements, which have decimated NHTSA.”
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#NHTSAs #Shrinking #Staff #Raising #Concerns #Safety
