WASHINGTON, DC—Consumer Reports and a coalition of public health, consumer, and safety organizations urged Congress to reject harmful cuts to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) proposed budget in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill.
The House Appropriations THUD subcommittee advanced the FY26 bill on Monday. Today, the full House Appropriations committee is considering the legislation.
“NHTSA plays an essential role in keeping people safe on the road, but that requires stable, adequate funding,” said Cooper Lohr, senior policy analyst for transportation and safety at Consumer Reports. “Cutting resources to highway traffic safety at a time when traffic deaths remain unacceptably high sends the wrong message.”
In a letter to House Appropriators, the coalition called on committee leadership to ensure that NHTSA has the resources necessary to carry out its mission of reducing the still-staggering number of deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes. As the letter notes, the House proposal would reduce NHTSA’s operations and research funding by over $10 million and would redirect nearly $78 million in funds originally set aside in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for state and local safety programs, crash data collections, and behavioral safety research, weakening NHTSA’s long-term safety capacity and potentially requiring further staffing cuts at an agency that has already experienced losses in key safety and technology areas.
Earlier this year, CR warned about consequences of potential cuts to NHTSA in a letter to DOT that, in addition to outlining key consumer priorities and emphasizing the importance of strong departmental leadership, highlighted the need to preserve the agency’s ability to finalize and enforce safety rules, conduct investigations, and oversee crash prevention technologies.
Media Contact: Emily Akpan, emily.akpan@consumer.org