Sponsors
The bill centralizes victims' roadway safety concerns in a career Advocate to improve DOT responsiveness and outreach, at the cost of new administrative spending and with limited enforcement authority that may restrict the office's ability to directly resolve issues.
Victims, survivors, and their families gain a dedicated federal point of contact (the Roadway Safety Advocate) to convey roadway safety concerns and recommendations directly to DOT leadership.
State and local governments, DOT staff, and taxpayers receive aggregated, accessible stakeholder feedback that DOT can use to better inform road safety programs, policies, and outreach.
Federal employees and the public benefit from the Advocate being a career appointee with full access to Department documents, improving continuity, institutional knowledge, and informed recommendations over time.
Taxpayers and DOT staff will incur costs to create and staff the Advocate position and supporting office, increasing DOT administrative expenses.
Victims, survivors, and families may find the Advocate limited in effectiveness because the office cannot take enforcement, policy, or legal actions to directly resolve stakeholder complaints.
Department staff and state partners could face redundancy or overlap with existing DOT stakeholder engagement mechanisms if reporting and access are concentrated in one new Office.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a National Roadway Safety Advocate at DOT to serve as a stakeholder contact, collect recommendations, publish materials, and report annually to the Secretary.
Creates a new career position at the Department of Transportation: the National Roadway Safety Advocate. The Advocate, housed in the Office of the Under Secretary for Transportation Policy, will be a central point of contact for roadway crash victims, survivors, and other stakeholders, will collect and communicate stakeholder recommendations to the Secretary, publish accessible materials, meet with the Secretary at least quarterly, consult on advisory committee appointments, and submit an annual report to the Secretary by November 15 each year. The position must be established within 180 days of enactment and is supported administratively and financially by the Office of the Under Secretary, with full access to Department documents as needed. The Advocate is limited to advisory, coordination, outreach, education, and reporting roles and is explicitly barred from giving legal advice, making Department decisions, delaying or setting agency deadlines, creating policy, interfering with enforcement or legal matters, or disclosing human resources matters. The Advocate may provide additional reports beyond the required annual report and will collaborate across DOT offices to aggregate stakeholder feedback.
Introduced January 31, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress January 31, 2025